Guided by the survey of literature, definitions of abstract thinking and critical processing skills have evolved and combined into a holistic approach to the critical thinking process.
Inferential reasoning involves discovering relationships between two or more concepts and discerning the nature of the relationship(s). For a nurse, this level of abstract thinking is necessary when forming a nursing diagnosis. This skill process seeks to estimate a valid focus statement from a variety of presenting data (Bandman & Bandman, 1995).
Goal setting is the abstract thinking level that reflects a student's understanding of a problem situation and the effectiveness of the student's intellectual process when establishing goals and prioritizing necessary interventions. For example, the nurse demonstrates this ability by developing and setting appropriate goals within a given problem-solving situation (Alfaro-LeFevre, 1995).
Application of knowledge is the level of abstract thinking which involves accurate implementation of knowledge throughout the problem-solving process. At this level of abstract thinking, the nurse would save, modify, change, manipulate, use, demonstrate, teach, or in some other way intervene to attain, maintain, and retain optimum client health.
Evaluation of predicted outcomes is the level of abstract thinking that reflects an individual's ability to effectively measure an action based on specific goals within a problem solving situation. In nursing, this continuous inquiry to evaluate the effectiveness of nursing care is demonstrated in the continuous quality improvement process (Rubenfeld & Scheffer, 1995).
