Strategy to Assess, Develop, and Evaluate Critical Thinking

The Journal of Continuing Education in NursingPublished 1 July 2000

Marilyn H. Oermann, Sandra Truesdell, Linda Ziolkowski

DOI10.3928/0022-0124-20000701-06

Source URL

Citations50

SJR quartileQ2

SJR score0.41

SNIP0.55

TL;DR

How to develop and use context-dependent items in nursing continuing education is described, designed to evaluate critical thinking, which is used in orientation, in competency testing, and by preceptors and others who work with beginning nurses for formative evaluation and discussions with them.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: To care for patients with complex health problems, nurses need a strong knowledge base and critical thinking skills. Critical thinking enables the nurse to process and analyze information, solve clinical problems, and decide on actions to take. Teaching and evaluation, however, often focus on memorizing facts and details about clinical care rather than on critical thinking. METHOD: Context-dependent test items are designed to evaluate critical thinking and may be used in orientation, in competency testing, and by preceptors and others who work with beginning nurses for formative evaluation and discussions with them. A context-dependent item presents introductory material to analyze and determine a course of action. The introductory material may be a clinical scenario, an issue nurses might face in their practice, patient data, graphs or flow sheets, and other types of material for analysis. Carefully planned questions for assessing critical thinking are then asked. CONCLUSION: The article describes how to develop and use context-dependent items in nursing continuing education.

Keywords

Social SciencesMedicineNursing

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