Critical thinking and clinical reasoning in nursing

Critical thinking is considered an essential component of the nursing profession 2. It encompasses learning experiences, intuitive abilities, and professional system requirements 3. Critical thinking is the purposeful and self-regulated judgment that develops during clinical reasoning and patient problem-solving 4. This level of critical thinking leads to patient-centered nursing care outcomes, enhances creativity, and improves problem-solving skills 5. Critical thinking increases clinical judgment and broadens learners’ perspectives in making clinical decisions 5, 6. It also enhances self-confidence and clinical competence among nurses 5. As a purposeful judgment, critical thinking plays a significant role in clinical reasoning 7. Improving clinical performance and delivering high-quality nursing care depends on acquiring specialized knowledge and developing critical thinking skills, which are considered standards of nursing education 8. Since accurate clinical reasoning is the most crucial skill required in professional nursing 3, unawareness of clinical reasoning and the inability to apply critical thinking in nursing decisions can lead to adverse patient outcomes 5.