Nurses are a critical part of the patient care team.  Their interaction with the client sets the tone for the level of care that determines patient health outcomes.  In their role, they nurses must acquire a mastery of critical thinking.  Skilled critical inquiry allows the nurse to gather pertinent and accurate patient data and make effective diagnosis recommendations.  As important as this skill is, relatively few nursing schools provide a solid grounding in the conceptual and practical application of critical thinking. This is a trend that must be reversed if health care providers are to maintain a high level of quality.

Nurses can be educated in the principles of critical thinking through classes that train them to compile data and make deductions within the framework of clinical reasoning.  Learning to think critically is a logical first step in aiding the ability of nurses to diagnose accurately.  Continuing education coursework can materially aid trained nurses in improving their cognitive abilities in ways that can improve diagnostic practices.

“Support for the hypothesis that participation in a 4-day, 16-hour continuing education course on critical thinking and clinical reasoning would improve the diagnoses’ …of the two case studies used to judge the usefulness of such a program, “accuracy scores of 20.5 percent of the participants’ improved on case study 1 and 38.5 percent improved on case study 2 is satisfactory…” (Cruz, Pimenta & Lunney, 125, 2009).

A broad study of available coursework and an investigation among nurses and other health care professionals of needed skills should provide a solid frame of reference for fine-tuning nursing curricula.  Of course, accuracy is the goal.  New case study simulations and a review of best practices should greatly improve diagnostic performance.

Learning to think and interact with patients within a specific process should be an outcome of basic education.  To that end, nurse educators are attempting to give students a solid grounding in critical thinking, with the intent that they be prepared to apply that skill in clinical reasoning.  “Nursing faculty continue to attempt to infuse critical thinking into nursing curriculum structures, to increase self-knowledge of critical thinking, and to use various teaching activities that foster the acquisition of critical thinking skills” (Vacek, 46, 2009).

Education professionals are reassessing course offerings and activities that promote critical thinking.  The application of “practical application” educational tactics, with a problem-focused conceptual approach should do much to improve the use of cognitive skills that result in critical thinking.  One of the most important benefits to nurses will be the ability to gather data and develop a course of action even in the hectic, demanding and deadline-driven health care environment.

Unfortunately, studies have shown that a low percentage of nurses entering the field are equipped to apply critical thinking that adequately prepares them to handle the time-sensitive professional needs that come with timely diagnosis.  Integrating the Human Patient Simulator into nursing education programs holds great promise for teaching nursing students to assess a patient health situation calmly and rationally and develop a care plan that’s focused on a positive and expedient outcome.

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