ABSTRACT
Critical thinking is universally recognised as an essential skill for nursing practice. This can be seen when examining practice standards required by various professional nursing bodies. One of the complexities of the real world in which critical thinking takes place is the diversity of cultures. Nurses often need to apply critical thinking to practice in contexts where they are challenged by multiple cultures and perspectives. The cultural diversity of nursing staff and the patient clientele does have practical implications that can lead to ill-informed actions and inappropriate interventions through misunderstandings and cultural stereotyping. Socrates was convinced that disciplined practice of thoughtful questioning enables the scholar/student to examine ideas logically and to be able to determine the validity of those ideas. The first is the cultural diversity of the patients a nurse clinician encounters; the second is the cultural diversity of the nursing staff themselves; and the third is the cultural specificity of the notion of critical thinking itself.
