Charting critical paths: Exploring how concept mapping amplifies nursing students' critical thinking and elevates patient care - A scoping review

Abstract

Concept mapping (CM) is a pedagogical approach that allows nursing students to improve their critical thinking (CT) abilities, which is paramount for providing quality patient care that underpins their ability to make sound clinical decisions and judgments by visually understanding the relationships and interconnections between various concepts. The purpose of the present review was to assess the outcome of CM on the CT skills. We searched Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, PubMed, and other sources to evaluate the effect of CM on CT among nursing students. The review included articles published between 2012 and 2023. Two authors individually extracted the data, identified the bias risk, and analyzed the data using the PRISMA-ScR framework. Database searches found 985 articles, 11 of which matched the inclusion criteria. 63.64% employed quasi-experimental approaches. 45.45% employed concept mapping instead of integration, whereas 9.09% used sophisticated technology. Second-year BSc Nursing students accounted for 54.55%. In 45.45% of the studies, sample sizes varied between 51 and 100. The studies' overall post-test CT scores were higher in groups which received CM as compared to other conventional pedagogical approaches. Most studies demonstrated minimal bias risk and P values greater than 0.05. The findings of the present study considered CM as an effective teaching method to enhance CT skills and also suggest the implementation of CM. It is recommended that nursing educators, administrators, and faculty evaluate curriculum to integrate CM into courses focused at promoting CT abilities in nursing students to improve the quality of patient care.