Teaching to learn, learning to teach: Clinical thinking tools to support novice clinical educators, preceptors and students

Abstract

Introduction and background: Today’s complex healthcare environment requires skilled clinical decision making. Yet, this skill in novice and student nurses is documented as linear, based on limited knowledge and experience, and often focused on single problems. Concurrently, an ongoing shortage of nurse educators has resulted in many clinical instructors and preceptors being relatively novice as educators.

Methods: Teaching and assessing critical thinking and clinical reasoning is challenging in the context of clinical practice education, especially for novice clinical instructors and preceptors. Critical thinking and clinical reasoning tools are presented as a useful pedagogical approach for teaching and assessing critical thinking, clinical reasoning and clinical decision-making both with students as well as with novice educators and preceptors.

Conclusions: By utilizing theoretically-based clinical thinking tools to guide learners through critical thinking, clinical reasoning and decision-making processes, both learners and novice educators benefit.