The purpose of this thesis was to make a descriptive literature review of the out of box -thinking and creative problem-solving methods and their applications to nursing care. Secondly, I wish to describe and clarify the terminology associated with the out of the box -thinking and creative problem solving, and how that could be further applied to nursing work.

The goal of this work was to raise interest in developing nursing care work and investigate whether this approach could be a way of maintain-ing enthusiasm and energy at work. Another aim was provoke a discus-sion concerning out of the box -thinking in social- and healthcare, in the way the work is done as well as in helping nurses to develop their prob-lem-solving skills in the multitude of different daily situations they come across.

The results of the literature review showed that out of the box -thinking generally means a departure from conventional thinking. It is translated into Finnish as dissidence. The concept of out of the box -thinking is also used as a synonym for creative problem solving. Creative problem solving using out of the box -thinking can be practiced and it's a teachable skill that can be utilized in social and healthcare work.

Conscious out of the box -thinking and problem solving helps with adapt-ability and commitment in specialist work. It would be recommended that in care work training and management, out of the box thinking and problem solving would be used more. In the future, it would be important to investigate the possibilities of combining the critical thinking skills used in nursing work with out of the box- thinking and problem-solving methods.