New Releases by Tina Sinatra

"100th anniversary of Frank Sinatra's birth"--Front cover.

"The purpose of this ongoing practice change project is to ascertain the effectiveness of concept mapping as a teaching strategy to facilitate critical thinking skills in the baccalaureate level nursing student. An in-depth literature review of topics related to the concept of critical thinking was performed. The research identifies several strategies to improve critical thinking in students as well as in new graduate nurses. All of the studies performed identified some degree of dissatisfaction with the critical thinking skills of nursing students in the beginning of their careers as student nurses or the critical thinking skills of new graduate nurses. Recommendations for further research on the concept of critical thinking and methods for enhancement is recommended by all of the research studies identified. Many of the studies discussed critical thinking skills in the student in the beginning and at the end of their nursing programs in order to improve critical thinking in students and also to provide recommendations for curriculum revision involving critical thinking (Spelic, Parsons, Hercinger, Andrews, Parks, & Norris, 2001, Shin, Lee, Ha & Kim, 2006, Hoffman, 2006, Paul, 1995, Khosravani, Manoochehri, & Memarian, 2005, Castellino & Scheuster, 2005, King & Shell, 2002). Among many of those recommendations was the use of concept mapping to improve critical thinking skills. The nursing process is currently being utilized in the proposed research setting with the completion level students. The current practice change project compares the utilization of the nursing care plan and concept mapping as a teaching strategy to enhance critical thinking skills in baccalaureate level nursing students in the clinical setting." -- Abstract.