You know everyone talks about critical thinking, but you may be confused about what it actually means. Well, the good news is that critical thinking is so fundamental to nursing practice that nurses do it automatically.

Critical thinking can be defined as an organized, cognitive process; a way of identifying underlying assumptions in a situation; and a method for exploring alternatives and selecting the best approach to a situation.

Characteristics of a critical thinker include:

• Open-minded
• Asks questions
• Displays curiosity
• Reasons
• Thinks independently
• Analytical

Source: Stressed Out About the NCLEX-RN®, HCPro Inc., 2007. For more information on our series of Stressed Out books, visit www.stressedoutnurses.com