Why is critical thinking important in nursing? Critical thinking is the essential component and foundation of the profession of nursing. Without one element of critical thinking, the nursing process, we cannot begin to understand or move forward in this great business. RNs must bring with them the skill of critical thinking to make wise decisions and collaborate on the change that will have a positive impact on the future. Also, as the opening vignette shows, many schools have opted to test critical thinking skills before students enter or exit the program (Harrington & Terry, 2009, p.p. 212-213). How does critical thinking facilitate the use of the nursing process? By defining the conditions under which sound and valid conclusions …show more content…
The nursing profession is experiencing distress and pressure from within and without regarding its purposes, educational preparation, practice, roles, theory, research, and in its relation to medicine (Harrington & Terry, 2009, p. 213). The nursing process, containing assessing, diagnosing, planning, implementing, and evaluating, each level uses critical thinking to achieve the optimum goal of quality patient care in nursing and throughout the healthcare profession. State how critical thinking is used in each area of the nursing process? Critical thinking sometimes referred to as "reflective thinking, elements include understanding, awareness, the willingness to take action, and compassion. It also support sensitive decision made by nurses, with emotional intelligence, in consideration towards ethical and cultural issues …show more content…
These higher-order of thinking skills are involved in the ADN curriculum through four modes of critical reflection: 1. problem solving (using the nursing process); 2. Reasoning and informal logic; 3. Reflection, challenging beliefs and imagining alternatives; and 4. Metacognition and self-regulation. The sections explore each of these four modes of critical thinking and learning activities within each mode that foster critical thinking. After reading and thinking about the nature of critical thinking, you now have not only a greater understanding of the concept but also a greater appreciation of the need for critical thinking in nursing. Nursing test includes questions on knowledge, comprehension, application, and analysis, most test at the levels of analysis and implementation (Harrington & Terry, 2009, p.p. 218-219). As nursing evolves, there is a need for higher order in critical thinking which will involve more evidence base
In other words, critical thought is a skill acquired through experience; in this instance, it is gained from clinical practice. I envision myself using critical thinking when assessing my clients, administering medication, enacting physician orders, and reviewing nursing recommendations.
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 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 in Clinical Practice There have been several research studies identifying the importance of critical thinking for nurses in clinical practice and the effects on patient care and outcomes. As stated in Assessing Individual Frontline Nurse Critical Thinking," there is widespread agreement among nursing leaders that critical thinking is a frontline nurse competency essential to providing safe and effective care." (Berkow, 2011). Studies continue to identify this in several countries, although the ways to achieve critical thinking varies. The level to which critical thinking should be expected and taught varies in the opinions of researchers.
Chang, M. J., Chang, Y. J., Kuo, S. H., Yang, Y. H. and Chou, F. H. (2011). Relationships between critical thinking ability and nursing competence in clinical nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20 (21–22), 3224–3232.
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.
Critical thinking and clinical judgment are important skills that professional nurses use in every day clinical setting. In 2012, a mix method qualitative study by Dr. Jeanne Mann was done to evaluate the effectiveness of educational strategy to develop clinical judgment skills in nursing students. In this study, the population was identified as volunteered Level II baccalaureate nursing students from a Midwest nursing program. The variables identified in this article are the relation between critical thinking and clinical judgment. The title of the article clearly indicated the focus of the study and created an interest in reading the research due to nurses utilize their ability to critical think and
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.
An original research study conducted by nursing professors Kathleen Lechasseur, Ginette Lazure, and Louise Guilbert of the Université Laval in Québec, titled “Knowledge mobilized by a critical thinking process deployed by nursing students in practical care situations: a qualitative study”, aimed to analyze the capability of undergraduate nurses to combine skills from various aspects of their life in practical care scenarios. In this report, various types of knowledge were considered in regards to determining the students’ abilities to think critically at a higher level, and a qualitative study by way of interviews over the span of 5 months
Critical thinking and clinical reasoning are similar in the fact that each term represents a set of methods that guide the nurse to reliable evidence-based practice while delivering care. Critical thinking and clinical reasoning are centered on knowledge base that is associated with the discipline of nursing. With each concept, the nurse must have an existing developed knowledge base in which to apply each concept to. Nurses apply critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills when patient care decisions are made. With both critical thinking and clinical reasoning, information about the patient is collected and examined. They work together to produce clinical judgment. They both direct nursing care to meet patients’ needs resulting in higher quality of care and better patient outcomes.
Critical thinking and nursing process are related to each other. As nurses, we use nursing process to make a clinical
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
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 skills, decision-making and problem-solving are attributes that nurses must have in today's healthcare environment. Strategies such as the use of nursing theories are sometimes implemented in education of nurses (Oldenburg & Hung, 2010). When examining the decision making and problem solving utilization within nursing theories, the reason behind
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,