Strategy to assess, develop, and evaluate critical thinking.
BACKGROUND
To care for patients with complex health problems, nurses need a strong knowledge base and critical thinking skills. Critical thinking enables the nurse to process and analyze information, solve clinical problems, and decide on actions to take. Teaching and evaluation, however, often focus on memorizing facts and details about clinical care rather than on critical thinking.


METHODS
Context-dependent test items are designed to evaluate critical thinking and may be used in orientation, in competency testing, and by preceptors and others who work with beginning nurses for formative evaluation and discussions with them. A context-dependent item presents introductory material to analyze and determine a course of action. The introductory material may be a clinical scenario, an issue nurses might face in their practice, patient data, graphs or flow sheets, and other types of material for analysis. Carefully planned questions for assessing critical thinking are then asked.


CONCLUSIONS
The article describes how to develop and use context-dependent items in nursing continuing education.
College of Nursing, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
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M
Oermann
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Truesdell
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Ziolkowski
D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training / Q000458:organization & administration*; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D009736:Nursing Process; D011340:Problem Solving; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013663:Teaching / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013850:Thinking