Enhancing Critical Thinking Competency and Nursing Quality in Critically Ill Patient Care

Inclusion Criteria: * diagnosis of critical illness by attending physicians or higher-qualified specialists according to established critical care diagnostic standards * requirement for ICU admission with full access to standardized critical care and medical resources * preserved partial gastrointestinal function without severe intestinal obstruction or perforation confirmed by certified nutritionists or senior nurses, enabling potential enteral nutrition (EN) or combined EN-parenteral nutrition (PN) support. Exclusion Criteria: * patients with severe cognitive impairment or psychiatric instability (e.g., advanced dementia, schizophrenia, status epilepticus) impairing capacity to engage in nutritional assessments or adhere to clinical protocols, which would jeopardize data collection reliability * terminal-stage conditions (malignancies, renal/hepatic failure) with life expectancy \< 7 days or exclusively receiving palliative care, leading to misalignment between their palliative nutritional goals and the study's therapeutic intervention objectives * congenital metabolic disorders (e.g., phenylketonuria) or short bowel syndrome requiring specialized nutritional protocols, which were incompatible with conventional critical care nutritional protocols and could compromise the generalizability of study findings * pregnancy/lactation due to unique nutritional demands and potential risks to fetal/infant development inherent in the study design, contravening established ethical standards * cases involving transfer, voluntary discharge, or withdrawal of consent that compromised data completeness.