Teaching strategies to promote critical thinking skills in nursing staff

The promotion of critical thinking skills necessary for safe, effective, state-of-the-art nursing care is discussed in this article. Definitions of critical thinking and inductive and deductive reasoning are explored. Benner's (1986) research, based on Dreyfus and Dreyfus' (1980) model of skill acquisition, provides a basis for the various strategies mentioned to teach critical thinking. Implementation and evaluation of these strategies are addressed.