Connecting critical thinking, caring, and curiosity in nurse education: Exploring the beliefs and practices of nurse educators

Abstract

A theoretical association exists between caring, critical thinking, and curiosity. We wanted to gain a deeper understanding about how the relationships translated to the perceptions and practices of nurse educators. We developed a survey of selected and free response items to gather a combination of quantitative and qualitative data related to nurse educators’ perceptions and practices related to caring, critical thinking, and curiosity. We distributed an invitation to participate in our online survey research project through direct communication with a sample of nurse educators and posted the request to a handful of nurse educator social media sites and listservs. Forty-six nurse educators fully completed our survey. Findings include a mixture of positive perceptions about learning caring and curiosity, insights about the importance of caring and curiosity in nursing, and practices that included promoting critical thinking and curiosity among nurses. We follow the results with a discussion of implications for nurse education.