Importance Of Critical Thinking In Nursing

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.

According to the textbook, Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice, there are over 100 definitions of the word “leadership”, and all of them are unique in their own way (Northouse, 2015, p.1). There are so many different aspects to leadership that is it nearly impossible to have one definition that covers every area. Each and every person that is a considered a leader has his or her own way of leading because every situation, whether it be work, a team, at home, etc., calls for different and distinctive ways of leading people. Northouse states that there are six main aspects of leadership; it’s a trait, ability, skill, behavior, relationship, and an influential process (Northouse, p. 3-6). Giving a clear answer as to what leadership is defined as is very difficult, but this paper will talk about my specific leadership skills and what leadership means to me.

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 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.

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 skills in nursing are very important and need to be a part of a nurse’s everyday routine according to Ericksen (2017). To become a nurse, one must learn practical skills in nursing school, like taking vitals, cleaning and dressing a cut, or administering medications with injections. But this is not sufficient for a nurse to be able to do their job successfully. A nurse must have the ability to think critically as well. Although there are some critical thinking pitfalls to acknowledge in order to identify why critical thinking is not used every day.

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.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, leadership is the power or ability to lead other people, the act or instance of leading. I believe that Leadership is an art, the art to get others to follow and accomplish a common goal or task in a harmonic manner. A leader can be shown in all kinds of shapes and forms. To be a great leader many people believe it consists of modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. Over the course of me learning how to become a better leader and being in leadership roles, I’ve learned that all these are very necessary to be a great leader.

You have a good initial post for module three. I agree with you the RN did not use critical thinking in this situation. I like that you included that the nurse should have evaluated alternative treatments for this patient. According to our textbook, Bransford and Stein's IDEAL problem-solving method included: identifying the problem, defining the problem, exploring alternative approaches, acting on a plan, and looking at the effects (Harrington & Terry, 2013, p. 219). The RN should have never offered to give the patient an addition dose of her pain medication in hopes of it having a sedative effect for the ride home. The patient is no longer experiencing any pain, and she has already conveyed to the nurse that the medication makes her feel nauseated. In addition to your post, another way the RN could have used critical thinking would have been by looking up the pain mediation's side effects and looking for any underlying causes of the patient's nausea.

Leadership is the ability of a person to influence people toward the attainment of a particular goal. Leadership is a people activity, not like administrative paper shuffling or problem solving. It is a dynamic force and involves the use of power. Out of the forces of leadership come four powerful characteristics: supportive, directive, participative, and achievement-oriented leadership. Although these types of characteristics are not considered ingrained personality traits, they reflect types of behavior every leader is able to adopt depending on the situation.

My idea of leadership is being able to inspire others, motivate, set a vision, communicate, respect others, and of course, lead by example. A leader must have an honest understanding of who they are, what they know, and what they are capable of. To be a successful leader, you have to be able to convince your followers, not just yourself or your superiors, that you are worthy of being followed. In my opinion, this can build confidence in their followers to have faith in you, in order to be able to lead. I strongly believe that good leaders are made rather, and not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders are developed through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and

Thinking is the process of applying a reasoning process or analyzing of something. Everyone has the faculty to think which is a natural occurrence, and it is our nature to do so. Although the process of thinking can be happened by nature, the critical thinking, however, is different. As for a definition, no word concept has a fix definition. The definition that can develop to define the critical thinking is a skill and/or the ability to react to make an important and a quick decision. Critical thinking can’t be taught or learned. It can only develop progressively with experience. Within the nursing field, critical thinking is an imperative to all nurses for patient care

Evaluation is part of the final stage of the nursing process involving other parts such as implementation, planning, nursing diagnosis and assessment. It involves establishment of criteria, analysis of variables affecting outcomes and conclusions and modifications in the nursing care plan. As an integral part of learning and teaching, it involves collection and analysis of data continuously. According to Ralp Tyler “Evaluation involves determining to what extent the educational objectives can be realized. It goes hand in hand with learning experiences and instructional objectives. When an executive of an organization or an educational organization considers the success or failure of his

skills for the nursing students. The authors Robert and Petersen conclude in the end that regardless of the way that the critical thinking is defined, strategic thinking enhances the care for the patient (2013).

Leadership is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as the “action of leading a group of people or an organization.” Leadership is also the ability to set trends, inspire, motivate, and sway others to produce desired results. There are different styles and ways of performing leadership and a good leader has the ability to take ordinary people, put them all together, and hopefully yield successful results. For organizations to have sustained results from their performance there must be a good balance of business insight, technical and interpersonal skills, and good team dynamics. A leader must know how to use all these areas as well as trust and communicate with their people in