Critical Thinking Tactics for Nurses: Tracking, Assessing and Cultivating Thinking to Improve Competency-Based Strategies

Critical Thinking Tactics for Nurses has twelve chapters: 1. Frequently Asked Questions about Critical Thinking in Nursing; 2. What is Critical Thinking? 3. Who Are the Critical Thinkers? 4. Why is Critical Thinking so Important? 5. The How, When, and Where of Critical Thinking for Clinicians and Educators; 6. Critical Thinking and Patient-Centered Care; 7. Critical Thinking and Interdisciplinary Teams; 8. Critical Thinking and Evidence-Based Practice; 9. Critical Thinking and Informatics; 10. Critical Thinking and Quality Improvement; 11 Thinking Realities of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow; and 12 Assessing Critical Thinking. There is a table of frequently asked questions about critical thinking in nursing with identification of the chapters where that content is discussed (pp.3-8) and one comparing multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and interprofessional teams (pp. 119-120). There are numerous boxes throughout the book on such topics thinking strategies (p. 14), critical thinking skills and habits of the mind (pp. 16-17; words to describe critical thinking (pp. 23-26); Gardner's Multiple Intelligences ( p. 37); thinking-promoting teaching style checklist (p. 47); Institute of Medicine core competencies (p. 77); critical thinking promoting and squelching comments and behaviors (p. 82); teaching techniques to promote processing and internalization of knowledge (pp. 87-88); validation remarks to promote patient participation in decisions (p. 108); and Institute of Medicine five criteria for achieving quality (p. 205). Sometimes tactics are listed or scenarios are presented. Chapter end with a pause and ponder section, reflection cues, and references. Appendix A is a critical thinking inventory and appendix B is an index of tactics. The book ends with an index. The authors synthesize the seventeen components of critical thinking with the Institute of Medicine's five competencies of patient-centered care, interdisciplinary team work, evidence-based practice, informatics, and quality improvement. Content from this book can be incorporated into numerous courses or be used in a course specifically about critical thinking.