Criticality in osteopathic medicine: exploring the relationship between critical thinking and clinical reasoning

Critical thinking is an important graduate attribute that is universally cultivated in university courses, including professional entry courses in health. Osteopathic medicine is undergoing considerable change as it reevaluates its traditional foundations in the context of the evidence-based demands of contemporary health care (Fryer 2008; Licciardone, Brimhall, and King 2005) and thus offers a timely opportunity for practitioners and students to engage in critical thinking both within and about the field. This chapter discusses the relationship between critical thinking and clinical reasoning and what criticality means in osteopathic medicine, which may shed light on the relationship between critical thinking and clinical reasoning in health care more generally. We argue that critical thinking and clinical reasoning are primarily distinguished by context and by the metaskills that practitioners call on in the course of clinical practice.