Assessment of critical thinking in nursing: How should critical thinking be assessed in the clinical setting

Developing critical thinking skills is a major concern in nursing education however, many baccalaureate (BNS) and associate degree (AD) nursing students continue to graduate without the critical thinking skills necessary to begin safe and high quality nursing practice. A review of the literature reflects a large volume of work examining critical thinking and strategies for instruction. There are numerous resources available to instructors and to students, but effective strategies for assessing a student's ability to critically think continue to elude nurse educators. To meet the student learning outcomes, nursing educators need to understand and provide educational opportunities for critical thinking, and the outcomes of such educational opportunities need to be assessed. This study provided clarity regarding the assessment of critical thinking in the clinical setting. A definition of critical thinking provided by Scheffer and Rubenfield (2000) was used as the base definition of critical thinking for this study. A Delphi Research method allowed experts in nursing education from a variety of states to reach a conclusion as to the best practice or method of assessing critical thinking in nursing students during their clinical learning experience. The results of this study indicate that nurse educators believe critical thinking should be assessed using a variety of techniques, in a variety of clinical learning situations and with the establishment of a trusting, safe learning environment. Implications from this study will influence the accuracy, the consistency, and the evidence for best practice of assessing critical thinking among nurse educators and assessment methods for nurse educators.