Critical thinking skills in nursing competency regulation: A documentary mapping study with curricular implications

This dataset provides the analytical materials supporting the study that maps, explicitly and traceably, the seven critical thinking (CT) skills defined by Scheffer and Rubenfeld (2000) onto the General Care Nurse Competency Profile Regulation in Portugal (Ordem dos Enfermeiros [OE], 2011). The purpose of this dataset is to (i) make available the aggregated results of a structured expert consultation and (ii) enable auditability and replicability of the documentary mapping. Only the following files are included:
Supplementary_Material.pdf — Contains five supplementary components: (S1) version history and harmonization decisions for the translation of the seven CT skills into European Portuguese; (S2) structured expert consultation instrument (Round 1) and full item-level aggregated results; (S3) complete codebook with CT skills definitions, operational criteria, direct and indirect anchors, and cross-cutting coding rules; (S4) [see Excel file below]; (S5) joint display presenting the macro–micro integration of expert consultation ratings and documentary mapping results by competency × CT skill.
Supplementary_S4_CodingMatrix.xlsx — Complete criterion-level coding matrix (IDs 1–96), including CT1/CT2, anchor type (direct/indirect), uncertainty level (low/medium/high), brief rationale, rules applied, uncertainty justification, audit trail note, and recoding/rectification notes.
Structured expert consultation
The study included a structured expert consultation (modified Delphi; Round 1, n = 9). This repository provides aggregated results only. Confidentiality note: participant-level data are not shared due to the risk of indirect identification given the small panel size and participants' professional characteristics.
Source and version of the analyzed document (corpus)
Documentary analysis was conducted on a publicly accessible normative document: Ordem dos Enfermeiros (2011). Regulamento do Perfil de Competências do Enfermeiro de Cuidados Gerais. https://www.ordemenfermeiros.pt/media/8910/divulgar-regulamento-do-perfil_vf.pdf
Unit of analysis and ID mapping (1–96)
Unit of analysis: each competency criterion in the Regulation (OE, 2011). The dataset uses a unique identifier ID (1–96) assigned sequentially to all criteria included in the corpus. Each row in the coding matrix corresponds to one criterion (ID) and also records the higher-level competency (A1–C3) to support contextual interpretation.
Methodological framework
Analysis was conducted as deductive content analysis guided by a theoretical framework, using predefined categories corresponding to the seven CT skills (Scheffer & Rubenfeld, 2000). The purpose of coding is to describe the normative textualization of cognitive operations in the regulatory document — not to evaluate CT demonstrated in clinical practice or to infer CT learning gains.