Reflection Journal On Critical Thinking For Nurses

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 reflection is vital to develop evidence based practice for safe and quality approaches to professional nursing practice. Nursing professionals should critically reflect on events to identify what health professionals might do to improve their practice and reduce the risk of a similar error. Reflective practice can help to learn from their mistakes, be empowered and most importantly to deliver best possible care to patient as nurses must work closely with their patients to develop a therapeutic relationship. Critical reflection is a valuable skill to ensure patient centred care. This practice promotes personal development by enhancing students’ self-awareness, their sense of community, and their sense of their own capacities for

Critical thinking does requires the application of knowledge and experience to identify patient’s problems and to direct clinical judgment and actions resulting in positive patient’s outcomes. Nurses use critical thinking skills when they reflect on knowledge derivative from other interdisciplinary subject areas such as the biophysical and behavioral sciences and the humanities in order to provide holistic nursing care. These skill are cultivate by nurses who display the virtues of critical thinking including independence of thought, curiosity, courage, humility, empathy and fair

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,

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.

How is critical thinking used today? This is a typical question that a student in a non-nursing major may ask, but here at the Christ College, we would be happy to answer that for you. As a student nurse, I use and witness critical thinking and clinical reasoning in the clinical field every day. To better understand this topic, I found two articles to read and review. The first article I found is based on education and the second shows the view of a well-practiced nurse.

The nursing professional faces a myriad of decisions on a daily basis. The effectiveness of the decision-making process is crucial to ensuring positive outcomes in the clinical setting. If the nursing process is misunderstood or misapplied to the decision-making process by a failure to use critical thinking skills, the results can be catastrophic to the anticipated outcomes. Furthermore, an immaturity in critical thinking may influence decisions because of insufficient knowledge and experience. This paper will explore the role of critical thinking and the nursing process in making clinical decisions. Additionally, clinical maturity will be addressed as a key component of critical thinking

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 refers to the ability to think rationally and clearly. It enables one be able to think well and be able to solve problems in a systematic manner. It also plays a role in evaluating ideas and acts as a tool for self evaluation. In nursing, critical thinking for clinical decision making refers to the process of thinking in a logical and systematic manner. Nursing practitioners who are critical thinkers strive to be clear, accurate, significant, precise and logic when carrying out their daily activities ADDIN EN.CITE Mateo2009451(Mateo & Kirchhoff, 2009)4514516Mateo, M. A.Kirchhoff, K. T.Research for advanced practice nurses: From evidence to practice. 2009New York, NYSpringer( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_6" o "Mateo, 2009 #451" Mateo & Kirchhoff, 2009). Critical thinking in nursing involves some elements of thought. It involves being able to figure out a problem, issue or views of somebody else. The goal of thinking is to figure out what one hopes to accomplish ADDIN EN.CITE Sheridan19841096(Sheridan, Vredenburgh, & Abelson, 1984)1096109617Sheridan, John E.Vredenburgh, Donald J.Abelson, Michael A.Contextual Model of Leadership Influence in Hospital UnitsThe Academy of Management JournalThe Academy of Management Journal57-782711984Academy of Management00014273http://www.jstor.org/stable/255957( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_7" o "Sheridan, 1984 #1096" Sheridan, Vredenburgh, & Abelson, 1984). Critical

Thelma Riddell, MScN, RN, COHN(C) believes there is no singular definition of critical thinking, but rather terms of components involved. Terms such as reflection, inquiry, interpretation and analysis, and reasoning and judgment are all terms that result in a change in belief or course of action. The first step in critical thinking is examining assumptions. This is not a simple task, and is most effective when a nurse uses critical questioning. Critical questioning allows the nurse to development reflective analysis, and encourage them to develop independent habits of critical reflection. Critical questioning must be specific to the event. The next step is reflective thought. During reflective though the nurse is aware of his or her own assumptions and how he or she is influenced by life experiences and culture. This is the key element in gaining critical thinking.

Critical thinking is defined as the ability to effectively, conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action in their execution of their duties to better understand the client.

How often, and under what circumstances, do you ask questions that start with “But what if…?” or “It depends…?”

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 and clinical reasoning are terms often used interchangeably throughout the history of nursing. However, they are not the same, and distinguishing the difference amongst them is important. The purpose of this paper is to define critical thinking and clinical reasoning, discuss each concepts similarities and differences, as well as share this author’s perspective on how critical thinking and clinical reasoning have developed and evolved throughout my own career, guiding my clinical practice decisions.