Learning Objective #1: Explain the components of a critically reflective thinking process

Learning Objective #2: Examine and discuss the benefits of a critically reflective thinking process

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Many teaching methods used in nursing education to enhance critical thinking focus on teaching students how to directly apply knowledge; a technically rational approach. While seemingly effective at enhancing students' critical thinking abilities in structured learning situations, these methods don't prepare students to operationalize critical thinking to manage the complexities that actually exist in practice. The work of contemporary educational theorists Paulo Freire, Donald Schon, Chris Argyris, Jack Mezirow, Stephen Brookfield, and Robert Tennyson all share similar perspectives on thinking in practice and the use of reflection to achieve a coherence of understanding. Their perspectives provide insight on how nurse educators can shift from a means-end approach to operationalizing thinking in practice. After analyzing the work of these theorists, the author generated common themes that demonstrate four core attributes of critical thinking: reflection, context, dialogue and time. These attributes were then incorporated into an educational intervention to qualitatively study how to operationalize critical thinking in nursing practice. The specific aim of this qualitative case study was to determine if the contextual learning intervention would enhance novice nurses' critical thinking skills over time during the first 6 months of their practice as evidenced by the nature of their dialogue, writing and respondent interviews. Using Stakes case study methodology, novice nurses participated in a 6-month reflective contextual learning intervention. The data analysis for this case study was guided by specific questions focused on understanding the impact of the contextual learning intervention on the nature of the novice nurses' reflection, dialogue and perspectives on context. Analysis involved searching for patterns and the consistency of those patterns across time and subjects helping the researcher to understand critical thinking as it related to the effects of the contextual learning intervention. The contextual learning intervention and results of the study will be discussed.