Strategies used for the promotion of critical thinking in nursing undergraduate education: A systematic review

Abstract

Objective: Identifying the strategies used to promote critical thinking (CT) during undergraduate education in nursing courses.

Design: Systematic review.

Source of data: Five electronic databases were searched without language, publication time or geographic filters.

Method: A systematic review of the literature. Including experimental studies that considered at least one teaching strategy to promote critical thinking of undergraduate students in Nursing courses. The search for studies occurred in three phases: title and summary review, complete text and implementation of a clinical form of selection according to predetermined criteria. All included studies were assessed for quality through a classification tool for experimental studies.

Results: Six studies were selected. The results were grouped into three key themes: an evaluation of the quality of the selected studies, characterization of the studies and the strategies used to promote critical thinking. All selected studies were in English, with significant conceptual similarity of Critical Thinking and dominance in choosing the approached theme during strategies in clinical nursing education with an emphasis on the nursing process.

Conclusions: The most widely used teaching intervention was Problem-Based Learning. Nursing education mediated by strategies that stimulate CT is considered a positive difference in undergraduate curriculums.

Keywords: Critical thinking; Educational technology; Higher education; Learning; Nursing education; Nursing students.