Journal of Nursing Education and Practice
International Peer-reviewed and Open Access Journal for the Nursing Specialists

“To discern the truth in everything, by whomsoever spoken, is wisdom” (Thiruvalluvar, circa 100 A.D.). This statement characterizes the core idea behind engaging students in critical and creative thinking. Nursing education has emphasized critical and creative thinking as an essential element of professional nursing practice. The growing body of research, patient acuity, and complexity of care demand higher order thinking skills. Therefore professional and regulatory bodies in nursing education have required that critical and creative thinking be central to all nursing curricula. However, can thinking skills be taught? Fortunately, research has shown that it is possible for students to acquire thinking skills in the classroom and other settings through various activities and strategies. These skills can also be cultivated by nurse educators who display the virtues of critical and creative thinking, by engaging students in activities that can generate independence of thoughts, intellectual curiosity, courage, humility, empathy, integrity, perseverance, and fair-mindedness.

We invite authors to submit review and original articles, whether empirical or theoretical, that seeks to explore the strategies and benefits of engaging nursing students in creative and critical thinking skills. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Why critical and creative thinking are important in nursing.
• Explorations of the processes to engage nursing students in critical and creative thinking.
• The impact of teaching critical and creative thinking in nursing on improving the quality of nursing care and patient outcomes.
• Teaching methodologies that elicit critical and creative thinking skills.
• Critical and creative thinking techniques in large classes.
• Curriculum mapping or educational innovation for fostering critical and creative thinking in the classroom, laboratory and practice settings.
• Nurse educators’ critical and creative thinking.
• Critical Reflection, Critical Reasoning, and Judgment.
• Methodological advances in the observation, description, and evaluation of critical and creative thinking.

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.sciedu.ca/journal/index.php/jnep/index.

Manuscripts due - August 31, 2012

First round of review – November 30, 2012

Publication date – February, 2013

Guest Editor

Joanne Profetto-McGrath PhD, RN

Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 1C9

joanne.profetto-mcgrath@ualberta.ca