What Are Critical Thinking?

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.

Castledine, G (2010) in Critical thinking is crucial in British Journal of Nursing 19 (4) pp271

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).

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

As the nurses who participated in a study (Jones & Cheek, 2003) overwhelmingly advised, there is no such thing as a typical day for a nurse. Nurses face new situations everyday and it is important that they can adjust their knowledge and skills accordingly. Critical thinking and reflection are essential skills because they can enhance nurses’ ability to solve problems and make sound decisions. Critical thinking skills enable nurses to identify multiple possibilities in clinical situations and alternatives to interventions; weigh the consequences of alternate actions; and make sound judgement and decisions (Brunt, 2005). Through reflection, nurses can examine their practice, explore feelings and reactions and connect new meanings to past experience (Brunt). Reflection can enhance self-awareness, foster professional satisfaction and growth and increase the possibility for change and improvement in nursing practice and therapeutic relationships (Thorne & Hayes, 1997).

160) Knowledge elevates the power of critical thinking. Critical thinking is very essential to work in areas such as Intensive Care Units, Emergency Care Units. Assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation are best done by a BSN than an ADN because of the power of critical thinking. The skills of critical thinking, better problem solving, and development of clinical judgment are important for increase patient acuity. Since BSN is better in critical thinking and evidence based practice, they lower mortality rate significantly. (Aiken, 2003)

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

Even in management, critical thinking is essential to having an effective organization. “Nurse managers who are adept at using critical thinking and have the “habits of mind” of a critical thinker are in a good position to assume a leadership role and create the changes that will achieve positive outcomes in health care organizations” (Zori, & Morrison, 2009 p.79).

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.

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.

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 in the nursing field is essential. Critical thinking for a nurse helps ensure safe nursing practices and quality patient care. As a nurse I have to be able to listen to what the patient is saying and ask the right questions to be able to provide the best care for that particular patient. Some patients are very open and they will tell you everything you need to know and others are not so open and I have to dig for answers and be careful not to offend them. Before moving I had the pleasure to work as a hospice nurse. As a hospice nurse you have to have good critical thinking skills because in many cases the nurse

Discussions on critical thinking and clinical reasoning are often put into the same category. There are similarities and some differences as well, making these concepts difficult to differentiate at times. This discussion will hopefully clarify some of the confusion and make these concepts more applicable in the clinical setting. One definition of critical thinking is “the application of knowledge and experience to identify patient problems and to direct clinical judgments and actions that result in positive patient outcomes” (Benner, Hughes, & Sutphen, 2008, p.2). Cody (2002) states that “critical thinking can be considered the application of reasoning and reflection to a variety of situations and discourses, along with the ability to identify evidence for one’s beliefs, evaluate its significance, and change one’s thinking accordingly” (p. 184). It is a higher level of thinking that happens when clinicians begin to ask questions that they may have never asked before. Brand new nurses can be sidetracked with empirical information, responding only to concrete facts without being able to “think outside the box” in certain situations. With experience, nurses begin questioning the why’s instead of just performing tasks because of an order set. The art of critical thinking develops over time and grows in certain contexts and within different frames of reference. Clinical reasoning, like critical thinking, is an

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

Rhodes, Morris & Lazenby (2011)asserts that nursing process in connected to the practice and due to the increasing use of technology, the shift of thinking strategies and change in the nursing has increased. It is also stated that nursing the process of nursing and critical thinking are not different from each other.