Thinking strategies are tools or skills that we develop to help us reason through a dilemma,” says Marsha Fonteyn, RN, PhD, CS, associate professor at the University of San Francisco, School of Nursing. “As a good craftsman uses a variety of specialized tools for different situations, so a good thinker uses a variety of thinking tools for special situations.”

Fonteyn should know: She has spent years examining the ways in which nurses reason. Before writing Thinking Strategies for Nursing Practice, she interviewed 15 experienced clinical nurses to learn how they think about the patient-care problems they face daily. Each interview lasted about three hours. It took a full year to conduct the interviews and another year to interpret the data, as each promising lead was also linked to evidence reported in the scientific literature by other researchers.

As a teacher, Fonteyn has always searched for ways to help her students solve clinical problems. But her research led her to the book’s broader goal: “To be more accurate and efficient and then produce better outcomes for patients.” She talks with excitement about the benefits her research could bring to patients when nurses practice and sharpen their thinking skills. These are benefits nurses should also talk about during a job interview. According to Fonteyn, nurses should deliver the message: “I can reason well and think on my feet, and my patients do well as a result of that.”

Fonteyn advises students, as well as experienced nurses, to demonstrate their worth during job interviews by emphasizing their thinking skills. “When someone wants to put their best foot forward and highlight the value they bring to the organization, they should also include their thinking skills,” she says. “Nurses frequently focus on their clinical skills, such as starting IVs, or their experience working with a particular patient population. But they fail to talk about their thinking skills.”Bette Case, RN, PhD, an independent consultant and frequent speaker about critical thinking, describes it as both a skill and a method that includes identifying the problem and generating as many solutions as possible. The process often begins with a doubt. “Questioning is key to gathering information to validate the problem,” says Case. Through collaboration and reflection, critical thinkers define the problem, identify potential solutions, and weigh the possibilities. Eventually they act on their conclusions, which helps to further refine the problem and generate fresh solutions. Instead of applying the same stock answers, critical thinkers consider unique alternatives. “Creativity – thinking outside the box – helps define the problem and generate solutions,” says Case.

During an interview, many nurses may be tempted to prove that they are experts because they have all the right answers. Instead, they should highlight the process they use to find the answer. “It’s better to sell yourself as someone who can think well to suggest possible solutions,” says Fonteyn, “rather than as someone who has memorized all the right answers.” But to be believable, use language that describes your reasoning skills in detail.

Students can also use thinking strategies to sell themselves for their first job. Although they may not have enough experience to fully develop all their critical thinking skills, students can still demonstrate the ways their patients have benefitted from thinking strategies. “New grads especially should emphasize and use examples of how they have set priorities,” Fonteyn advises. “They’ve had to struggle with setting priorities as students, and they can focus on that.”

Thinking about the ways you think helps you prepare for an interview and sets you apart as a desirable candidate. But it also sharpens the thinking skills that you need during clinical practice. According to Fonteyn, “After reading the book, nurses get excited about recognizing their personal thinking strategies and begin to recognize the strategies as they’re using them. They become better thinkers as a result.”

Jeffrey Zurlinden, RN, MS, ACRN, is a frequent contributor to Nursing Spectrum.