Objective:

To integrate findings of scientific literature that report on the importance of statistical thinking for development of nursing as a science.

Content synthesis:

Literature review of articles published in indexed scientific journals between 1998 and 2017 in databases LILACS, SAGE Journals, Wiley Online Library, Scopus, BIREME, SciELO, ScienceDirect, PubMed, CUIDEN® y ProQuest. 22 publications were included and findings were extracted, classified, and simplified using descriptor codes, nominal codes, and emerging topics. The following six topics emerged from searches: Education for statistical thinking; Statistical thinking for decision-making in practice; Obstacles to the statistical thinking development; Skills necessary to statistical thinking; Statistics in creating scientific knowledge; and Challenges for statistical thinking development.

Conclusion:

In the current development of nursing as a science, statistical thinking has primarily been a useful tool for the research field and training of researchers. The existence of obstacles to the statistical thinking development in nurse practitioners has been reported, revealing the need to bound statistics with nursing practice. For this purpose, it is essential to prepare texts and subject of statistics applied to the context of discipline and practice.

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