Background: To care for patients with complex health problems, nurses need a strong knowledge base and critical thinking skills. Critical thinking enables the nurse to process and analyze information, solve clinical problems, and decide on actions to take. Teaching and evaluation, however, often focus on memorizing facts and details about clinical care rather than on critical thinking. Method: Context-dependent test items are designed to evaluate critical thinking and may be used in orientation, in competency testing, and by preceptors and others who work with beginning nurses for formative evaluation and discussions with them. A context-dependent item presents introductory material to analyze and determine a course of action. The introductory material may be a clinical scenario, an issue nurses might face in their practice, patient data, graphs or flow sheets, and other types of material for analysis. Carefully planned questions for assessing critical thinking are then asked. Conclusion: The article describes how to develop and use context-dependent items in nursing continuing education.

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Preceptor preparation is critical to the success of all orientation programs. This article focuses on the purposes of preceptor preparation and a series of programs developed for the staff of Surgical Services. The programs are leveled and focus on basic and advanced concepts. The advanced program is a means of reward and recognition for preceptors in the various surgical services areas. The programs are designed for nurses and other staff involved in precepting new employees.

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