JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Nursing education has increasingly focused on critical thinking among nursing students, as critical thinking is a desired outcome of nursing education. Particular attention is given to the potential of technological tools in guiding nursing students to stimulate the development of critical thinking, but the general landscape, facilitators and challenges of these guidance models remain unexplored, and no previous mixed methods systematic review on the subject has been identified.

Objective:

This study aimed to synthetise the existing evidence on technology-supported guidance models used in nursing education to stimulate the development of critical thinking in nursing students in clinical practice.

Methods:

This mixed methods systematic review adopted a convergent integrated design to facilitate thematic synthesis. The study follows the guidelines of the Joanna Briggs Institute Manual for Evidence Synthesis.

Results:

We identified three analytical themes: learning processes implemented to stimulate critical thinking, organisation of the learning process to stimulate critical thinking and factors influencing the perception of the learning process. We also identified four guidance models, all based on facilitator/preceptorship models using tailored instructional or learning strategies and one or several technological tools, which were either generic or custom made for specific outcomes. The main facilitators of these technology-supported guidance models were nurse educators or nurse preceptors, and the main challenges in using technology-supported guidance models were the stress associated with technical difficulties or with an increased cognitive load.

Conclusions:

Although we were able to identify four technology-supported guidance models, our results indicate a research gap regarding the use of these models in nursing education with the specific aim of stimulating the development of critical thinking. Both nurse preceptors and nurse educators play a crucial role in the development of critical thinking among nursing students, and technology is essential for such development. However, technology-supported guidance models should be supervised to mitigate the associated stress.