INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING AND CRITICAL THINKING IN AN ADVANCED PRACTICE PSYCHIATRIC NURSING PROGRAM

The advanced practice psychiatric nurse must be prepared to meet the c hanging demands being placed on the nursing profession. Some changes a re the product of health care reforms, especially managed care, Others are more fundamental, because continuing scientific advances drive ra pid changes in the knowledge base required of mental health nurses. Cu rricular reforms initiated earlier this decade were intended to equip nurses with the problem-solving and critical-thinking skills required to deal with novel and complex situations in a rapidly changing health care system, This article describes how the Inquiry-Based Learning tut orial method attends to the mental processes of graduate students and fosters critical-thinking skills. Copyright (C) 1998 by W.B. Saunders Company.