Visual Thinking Strategies in Nursing: a systematic review

It is generally accepted that the main skills a nurse should have are communication, critical thinking, responsibility, accountability for their decision and action, attention to detail and adaptability. Nurse educators are called to prepare students to pay close attention to detail and to describe them in a language that reflects what is actually occurring. Since the last ’80, there are many experience to find innovative way to help these student to improve their need competence. Art Observation practice seems useful tool to achieve this purpose. In this context VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) method has been applied in nursing education in partnership with Museum educator with positive results. It used PubMed, Google Scholar and Cochrane Database, to identify studies designed to evaluate the effectiveness of VTS on the observational skills of nursing students. The analysis of three qualitative studies founded demonstrate the potential educational benefit of the VTS method in under graduate nursing training. The review suggests that VTS can contribute to development of observational skill, communication, tolerance of ambiguity and to improve feeling safe in learning and collaborative work.