Intensive Care Unit Nurses: Critical Thinking Skills and Caring Behaviors

Background: Intensive care unit (ICU) nurses must think critically in order to identify and deal with patients problems and thus provide better care. Currently, however, no existing research has explored ICU nurses’ critical thinking skills and caring behaviors. Purpose: To investigate the associations among the personal characteristics, critical thinking skills, and caring behaviors of ICU nurses in Taiwan. Methods: A cross-sectional correlational study was conducted. A convenience sample of 352 ICU nurses was recruited from three hospitals in southern Taiwan. Data were collected using self‐report measures including a Personal Characteristics Questionnaire, the Critical Thinking Skills Scale, and the Caring Behaviors Scale. Results: (a) The critical thinking skills and caring behaviors of the ICU nurses were found to be “moderate”, with index scores of 52.5 and 65.6, respectively. (b) The nurses’ overall critical thinking skills were associated by their clinical ladder, with their “Inference skills” being affected by their seniority and their “Interpretation skills” being affected by their position titles. (c) Their caring behaviors were affected by their age, marital status, clinical ladder, hospital work seniority, and ICU work seniority. (d) Their critical thinking skills and caring behaviors were not associated. Conclusions: In the healthcare sector, managers should seek to enhance ICU nurses’ critical thinking skills and teach them specific behaviors to help them better care for ICU patients.