Critical thinking in nurse education: exploring critical thinking from the the nurse lecturers' perspective

Introduction: Critical thinking is not a new concept to nursing, it first appeared in nursing literature in the early 1980s, and education for critical thinking dates back to Dewey (1910). The importance of developing critical thinking skills in nursing has heightened over the decades due to the changes in nurse education, advances in healthcare, and the complexity of patient’s needs. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018) underpin education for nursing, and with that have placed heavy emphasis on the need for nurses at the point of graduation to be competent critical thinkers, which reflects the theme of knowledge in action. However, nurse lecturers face a number of barriers when trying to develop students to think critically such as; time constraints, content saturated curricula, heavy workloads, lack of established pedagogical approaches, and no clear definition for critical thinking.
Aim: The main aim of this research is to explore the lived experiences of nurse lecturers in relation to how critical thinking is taught and developed in undergraduate nurse education.
Methodology: A single exploratory descriptive approach was utilised.
Findings: Preliminary data analysis suggests that nurse lecturers for the most part utilise case studies, questioning, and clinical examples to support the development of critical thinking. However, there was inconsistency found with the approaches used within the classroom and understanding how these link to the development of critical thinking. Nurses lecturer’s definition of critical thinking reflected the linear nursing process, which has been criticised within the literature because critical thinking is thought to be much more than a linear process. Barriers faced by nurse lecturers include time constraints, heavy workloads, and lack of critical thinking specific training for nurse lecturers