Content area
The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand critical thinking from the nurse educator perspective in registered nurse preparation programs by examining how nurse educators come to their understanding of critical thinking and how it is manifested in their practice. The research questions guiding this study were:
1. How do nurse educators come to their understanding of critical thinking?
2. How is critical thinking manifested in the classrooms of nurse educators?
Two themes emerged from this qualitative research study. The first major theme was: Critical Thinking as a Byproduct of the nursing education teaching learning exchange. There were four subthemes under this major theme:1) Critical Thinking is not a prominent aspect of Nursing Education; 2) Critical Thinking in not part of the curriculum of Nursing Education; 3) in Nursing Education Critical Thinking is achieved through various paths; and 4) Cortical Thinking is understood by Nurse Educators. The second major theme was: Critical Thinking as an Embedded Phenomenon that is woven into Nursing Education. There were three subthemes under this major theme. It’s supporting themes were: a) classroom management varies with nurse educators; b) classroom structure inhibits the ability to teach critical thinking; and c) an important teaching strategy is to recognize the occurrences of CT in the classroom so that it can be developed.
There were two conclusions from this study in answer to the two research questions. The first conclusion was that Critical Thinking is not a foundational or supplemental component on Nursing Education teaching/learning exchange. The second conclusion is that Critical Thinking happened in the nurse educators’ classrooms on an infrequent bases and was often the result of a dynamic teachable moment.