Innovative solutions: using case studies to generate increased nurse's clinical decision-making ability in critical care.

Learning to care for critically ill patients requires a high level of critical thinking, clinical decision-making ability, and a substantial knowledge base. At this nursing school, an elective Critical Care Nursing course for last-semester seniors was designed to include active learning strategies, focusing on the use of case studies to facilitate learning. Results indicate significantly improved final examination scores for those involved with the case-study pedagogy. In addition, students identified enhanced communication skills. Two complex cases are presented for others to use with their educational programs.