Critical Thinking And Decision Making

Critical thinking is a term you will often here in regards to nursing education and the ability to be a successful nurse. Critical thinking is one of the most important skills of a nurse. Nurses must be able to constantly asses and analyze situations in order to prioritize what is the most important task to accomplish next. This is an ever changing situation in health care and especially in the Intensive Care Units.

Critical thinking is described as unbiased, clear and factual thought process that helps any student with any decision-making process. Critical thinking is an essential tool that every student will need to master to continue academic success. There are multiple phases of critical thinking as described by Benjamin Bloom which include remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. The critical thinking process starts by remembering. If we can remember what we read and apply key facts we will be able to move forward to understand what decisions we need to make. From there we can then apply the facts to the decision we have to make and innovate, or create, as needed.

Nursing practice requires both critical thinking and clinical reasoning. Critical thinking is the process of deliberate higher level thinking to define a patient’s problem, examine the evidence-based practice in caring for the patient’s, and make options in the delivery of optimal care. Critical thinking involves the demarcation of statements of fact, judgment, and opinion. The progression of critical thinking requires the nurse to think imaginatively, use reflection, and engage in logical thinking (Alfaro-LeFevre, 2013). Critical thinking is a vital skill needed for the recognition of patient’s

Critical thinking is a nursing process that includes reflective practice, problem solving and decision making which are connected to one another. The definition of critical thinking is transferring and applying knowledge and skills in a new situation. The critical thinking is needed in a lot of aspects of the nurses’ job such as when the nurses need to provide the precise identification in the specific problems had by the patients. They need to be in detail and also critical to themselves in every time in order to be able to provide identification precisely. When you have the profession in nursing, it is important to be critical thinker. The nurses have the high responsibilities and their responsibilities are increasing from time to time.

The national league for nurses defines critical thinking in the nursing process as “a discipline specific, reflective reasoning process that guides a nurse in generating, implementing, and evaluating approaches for dealing with client care and professional concerns” (Kozier, 2008). This definition is imperative to help a nursing student learn how to think in terms of nursing care. Nursing students must achieve a comprehensive understanding of critical thinking in order to understand the nursing process. The purpose for this paper is for nursing students to learn how to use the nursing process, how to properly document their findings and assessments, and correctly implement APA formatting in a formal paper.

Many times, time and perseverance is the key to the best result possible. But like Gary Collins said “We can try to avoid making choices by doing nothing, but even that is a decision. Therefore, decision making is in us relentlessly whether we want it or not.

Nurses probably hear about critical thinking on the first day of a nursing school program. In fact, nurses are encouraged to use critical thinking to solve daily tasks and problems (Bridget, 2014). After carefully reviewing the Critical thinking Wheel I discovered a few weakness of my critical thinking. The most important one is understanding my point of view. I sometimes fail to recognize another way to look at a situation or a problem. Instead, I focus on trying to prove to others and myself the relevance and reasoning behind my point of view. This approach limits the possible outcomes to problem or task. A good leader should be open to alternative solutions and ideas in order to facilitate the best outcome.

Nurses are expected to make quick and sound decisions about patient care every single day. These decisions require critical thinking in order to provide their patients with the best care possible. Nurses have to be able to think quickly in an emergency situation and that is why critical thinking is so imperative in the healthcare field. Critical thinking is a fundamental skill that we learn in nursing school. It is more of a situational tool nurses use to make clinical decisions.

Critical thinking under the limelight when considering accuracy of diagnosis related to nurse’s decision which involves seven cognitive abilities and ten phases of mind. (Lunney & Margaret, 2003). However, when all these factors are established, critical thinking would then setup gaols and derive a plan to identifying, interacting thoughts and interconnecting numerous elements. These all would in return help implantation and evaluation and leading to strong decision making. Moreover, critical thinking is very crucial and important for clinical nursing and its shuffling and implementation further promotes development and decision making criteria (Videbeck, Jan 1997).

Gaberson, K.B; Oremmann, M. H; & Shellenbarger, T. (2015), critical thinking is defined as the mental process of actively and skillfully perception, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of collected information through observation, experience and communication that leads to a decision for action. In nursing education there is frequent reference to critical thinking and to the significance that it has in daily clinical nursing practice. Nursing clinical instructors know that students face difficulties in making decisions related to clinical practice. The main critical thinking skills in which nursing students should be exercised during their studies are critical analysis, introductory and concluding justification, valid conclusion, distinguish

Critical thinking is defined by Victor-Chmil as “the cognitive processes used for analyzing knowledge” (2013, para.1). Critical thinking is knowledge based and

It is very important to be able to think critically in what ever situation when it comes to nursing, especially if one works with critically ill patients. Critical thinking is the ability to gather information whether through knowledge,

In nursing, critical thinking is crucial in practice. Critical thinking skills help a nurse determine how to manage a shift, patient care and

According to Penn (2008), critical thinking has become one of the most rapidly growing and significant trends in healthcare within the last 30 years. Following along with that trend, the nursing profession has moved away from task-oriented practice to a model based on assessment, comprehension, judgment, and informed decision-making, all of which rely heavily on a nurse’s ability to think critically. Measures involved in the critical thinking process include evaluating the evidence, identifying the influencing beliefs, interpreting by way of multiple perspectives, evaluating the

Critical thinking is defined by Victor-Chmil as “the cognitive processes used for analyzing knowledge” (2013, para.1). Critical thinking is knowledge based and dependent on the nurse’s knowledge base on a particular subject (Victor-Chmil, 2013). It is based on evidence and science. With critical thinking, problems are solved by evaluating information gained through knowledge. “Critical thinking involves the application of knowledge and experience to identify patient problems and to direct clinical judgments and actions that result in positive patient outcomes” (Benner, Sutphen, & Hughes, 2008, p. 2). According to Kramer (1993), critical thinking is a natural process that is developed naturally by all learners, just needing developed in regards to relationships, perspectives, and nursing practice.