Essay Critical Thinking: Beneficial in Nursing Education

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.

The co-operative nursing assignment has given me the opportunity to use my critical thinking, decision-making, leadership, and clinical nursing expertise learned throughout the RN-BSN program. “The fostering of critical thinking as one of the terminal learning goals of nursing education based on the idea that critical thinking is important not only in the nursing workplace, but also in nursing education” (Shin, Jung, Shin & Kim, 2006, p. 233). My

Critical thinking is a simple yet impressive process of obtaining, analysing, evaluating, searching and conceptualising the provided information for the self-awareness of one’s thinking, and his conceptual ability to use this to take risks and add creativity. The nursing process is an important and integral part of the practice of nursing since long and has been effectively used to solve the problems and use this as an activity for thinking and planning for caring as a professional in the nursing practice.

Underlying both the clinical decision-making process and the nursing process is the skill of critical thinking. Critical thinking has been described as the ability to gather and process data in such a way as to arrive at the best conclusion using the filters of prior knowledge, experience and external resources to overcome personal emotions, biases, and assumptions. (This description was developed during NUR/300 class, University of Phoenix, S. Colorado, March 16, 2006) Note that critical thinking is described as a

Without the ability to critically think during the diagnosis process, nurses are denying their patients the care they need and deserve. The process of critically thinking about the patient’s condition and best treatment method is the fastest and most convenient way of treating them. Before a nurse can help their patient “they must know ‘what is’ the problem, risk state or readiness for health promotion …” (Lunney, 2010). In order to actually help the patient, the nurse must use his/her CT skills to determine how best to execute proper care. According to Chitty & Black (2011) a nurse who properly uses CT skills in her everyday practice does the following:

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.

The major study variables in this investigation were critical thinking and clinical judgment skill of nursing students. Critical thinking was operationally defined with the ATI Critical Thinking Test and clinical judgment was operationally defined with the Lasater’s Clinical Judgment Rubric (Mann, 2012). The independent variable was identified as the Level II baccalaureate nursing students. The dependent variable was identified as the critical thinking and clinical judgment skills of the nursing students. The demographic variables included the gender and age of the

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.

Critical thinking and clinical reasoning are two terms that are similar in natural and at times have been used inter-changeably throughout nursing literature. However, while there are similarities that can be observed when examining these two terms they are also uniquely different and should be treated as such. While many definitions of critical thinking exist The American Philosophical Association (APA) has defined critical thinking as “purposeful, self-regulatory judgment that uses cognitive tools such as interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, and explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations on which judgment is based” (American Philosophical Association, 1990). Much like critical thinking, multiple definitions exist for clinical reasoning. While numerous definitions may indeed exist “a clear and precise” definition has not yet been found within nursing literature (Simmons, 2010, p. 1151). According to Dr. Simmons, clinical reasoning within nursing is defined as “a complex cognitive process that uses formal and informal thinking strategies to gather and analyze patient information, evaluate the significance of this information and weigh alternative actions” (Simmons, 2010, p. 1155).

Additionally, nurses use critical thinking to make observations, create ideas, draw conclusions, evaluate, and improve their knowledge base.

In addition to these characteristics, nursing also involves critical thinking. "Critical thinking is the active, organized, cognitive process used to carefully examine one's thinking and the thinking of others. It involves the use of the mind in forming conclusions, making decisions, drawing inferences, and reflecting" (Perry,

Critical thinking is defined as a disciplined, self directed thinking that meets appropriate intellectual standards within a particular mode or domain of thinking (Paul and Elder, 2014). In Nursing, the possession of this important skill helps a nurse to assess a given situation, identify the main problem, determine a perfect solution and implement an effective method of dealing with the problem.

Critical thinking in nursing is a process of inquiry in which I try to gain a better understanding of the patient symptoms, and illness. I would describe the way I inquire information and base it on the standard set of rules known as the scientific method. The scientific method is important because it provides a regulated process for conducting research:

“Much of nursing knowledge has been and remains invisible, even to nurses themselves” (Evans & Donnelly, 2006, p. 151). Critical thinking skills cannot be seen by anyone, and often go unnoticed, which makes nursing look like a list of tasks that need to be performed by strict deadlines and must meet highly monitored parameters. Only experience and moving through the stages outlined in Benners Transition from Novice to Expert Theory will help you gain the critical thinking skills that are defined on the expert nursing level. As you transition, and move through the stages from novice to expert, you are not only gaining a better understanding of the tasks that you are required to perform, but you are gaining critical thinking skills that a text

This paper aims to examine the etiology, evidence of lack of utilization of critical thinking, the legal ramifications, Federal regulations, and the strategies that can be applied to boost the utilization of critical thinking in the clinical setting. The paper acknowledges that critical thinking is a key element in healthcare settings and that it should be one of the required core competencies in nursing. Analysis of studies illustrates that nurses lack adequate critical thinking skills, as indicated by their performance in CTS tests. Some of the legal ramifications in nursing include the risk of being sued, for malpractice, professional and ethical misconduct and negligence. The federal regulations including the Privacy Act (1974) guide how information of the patients should be handled. To improve critical thinking skills among nurses, it is crucial to integrate critical thinking skills into the teaching curriculum.