The following best practices essays are excerpted from “Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning in the Health Sciences.” Each essay provides an example of training reasoning skills and thinking mindset described by international experts in training clinical reasoning. Contributors were asked to describe their favorite lesson, but one that could be generalized to other disciplines, and to provide evidence of its effectiveness.

Although the specific example lessons described by these authors focus on the content knowledge of their respective practice disciplines, the educational approaches and techniques are highly transferable to all types of training programs and educational projects. Download these essays with our compliments.  And visit the other parts of our website for more resources.

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Perspective 1: Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning

• The Relationship of Critical Thinking and Clinical Judgment

Perspective 2: Teaching Critical Thinking in Medicine

• Teaching Critical Thinking in Medicine

Perspective 3: Health Care Ethics – The Impact of Culture

• Interpreting Benevolence and Righteousness in Contemporary Health Care

Using Analytical and Evaluative Community-Based Projects

• An Analytical and Evaluative Approach to Community-Based Cancer Screening and Prevention Projects

Using Cases

• Using Short Cases to Teach Thinking
• Developing On-Line Cases for Teaching Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning Skills
• Unfolding Case Studies: Dynamic Mental Models in a Public Health Context
• Case Study Tutorial with Guided Reasoning: Developing Self Evaluation of Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning Skills

Using Challenges to Conventional Ideas Embedded in Ethics, Laws, and Culture

• Preparing Overseas Nurses to Work in Australia

Using “The Clinical Sieve” to Express Diagnostic Thinking

• The Clinical Sieve: A Visual Implement to Share Diagnostic Thinking

Using the Creative Arts and Qualitative Ethnography

• Using the Creative Arts to Develop Critical Thinking Skills: Examining the Qualitative Method of Ethnography

Using Journaling 

• Keeping a Journal of Reflections on Learning
• Nurturing Students’ Meta-Cognition and Self Reflection Through On-line Journaling
• Promoting Metacognition by Reflecting with Self Regulated Learning Prompts

Using Life Style Products – Evaluating a Nutritional Supplement

• Evaluating a Nutritional Supplement with SOAP Notes to Develop CT Skills

Using Media Advertising in Distance Learning

• Using Media Advertising in Distance Learning to Cultivate CT Dispositions

Using Multiple Exercises to Integrate Skills and Habits of Mind

• Working with Patients Who Self-Harm

Using Problem-Based Learning

• Problem-Based Learning in a Competency-Based Medical Assistants Curriculum

Using Reflective Storytelling – Going from “What” to “Why”

• From What to Why–Reflective Storytelling as Context for Critical Thinking

Using Research Poster Presentations

• The Poster: A Critical Thinking and Creative Strategy in a Research Course

Using Role-Play Strategies

• Role-Play Strategies for Critical Thinking in Psychiatric Mental Health

Using Scoring Rubrics Developmentally

• Using the Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric to Train Discovery of Evidence of Critical Thinking

Using Teachable Moments in Clinical Practice

• Teachable Moments in Clinical Practice: Promoting Clinical Judgment

Using Theoretical Models

• Using Theoretical Foundations for a Community Health Nursing or a Population Health Course
• Prioritizing Nursing Assessments and Care

Using Workshop Exercises – Reflecting on Practice

• Reflecting on Practice–A Workplace Exercise