Nursing Practice

• Critical thinking in nursing practice

  1. Critical thinking is the ability to think in a systematic and logical manner with openness to question and reflect on the reasoning process

  2. Contemporary nursing practice needs effective thinkers and decision makers who are capable of analyzing clinical data, medical and nursing knowledge, and environmental data, translating the analyses into life-saving interventions

  3. The nursing applies her knowledge, clinical experiences, and professional standard when thinking critically and making decisions about patient care
• Critical thinking involves

  • Open-mindedness
  • Continual inquiry (added learnings)
  • Perseverance (determination/do not surrender)
• Critical thinking considers

  • What is crucial in clinical situations?
  • Imagines and explores alternatives
  • Ethical principles
  • Make informed decisions regarding the care of the patient
• Reflection


  Purposeful thinking back or recalling a situation to discover its purpose or meaning
• Interpretation

  1. Be orderly in collecting data regarding patients

  2. Apply reasoning while looking for patterns to emerge

  3. Categorize the data

  4. Gather additional data or clarify any data about which you are uncertain
• Analysis

  1. Be open-minded as you look at information regarding the patient

  2. Do not make careless assumptions
• Influence


  Look at the meaning and significance
• Evaluation

  1. Look at all situations objectively

  2. Use criteria to determine results of nursing interventions

  3. Reflect on your own behavior
• Explanation

  1. Support your findings and conclusions

  2. Use knowledge and experience to choose strategies to use in the care of patients
• Self-regulation


  1. Reflect on your experiences

  2. Be responsible for connecting your actions with outcomes

  3. Identify the ways you can improve your performance. What will make you believe that you have been successful?
• Truth Seeking


  • Nursing practice application seeks the true meaning of a situation
  • Be courageous, honest, and objective regarding asking questions
• Open-mindedness


  • Be tolerant of different views; be sensitive to the possibility of your own prejudices
• Analyticity

  • Analyze potential problematic situations
• Truth Seeking


  • Nursing practice application seeks the true meaning of a situation
  • Being courageous, honest, and objective regarding asking questions
• Open-mindedness


  • Being tolerant of different views; being sensitive to the possibility of your own prejudices
• Analyticity

  Analyze potential problematic situations, anticipate possible results or consequences, value reason, use evidence-based knowledge
• Systemacity

  • Being organized, focused, working hard in any inquiry
• Self-confidence


  • Trusting in your own reasoning processes
• Inquisitiveness

  • Being eager to acquire knowledge and learn explanations even when applications of the knowledge are not immediately clear, valuing learning for learning’s sake
• Maturity


  • Accepting multiple solutions, reflecting on your own judgment, having cognitive maturity
• FUNDAMENTALS NURSING PRACTICE
• LESSON 1: BASIC CRITICAL THINKING


  A learner trusts that experts have the right answers for every problem, thinking is concrete and based on a set of rules or principles, the nurse does not have enough experience to anticipate how to individualize the procedure when problems arise, answers to complex problems are either right or wrong, a basic critical thinker learns to accept diverse opinions and values of experts
• LESSON 2: COMPLEX CRITICAL THINKING

  Beginning to separate themselves from experts, analyzing the situation and examining choices more independently, learning that alternatives and perhaps conflicting solutions exist, being willing to consider different options from routine procedures when complex situations develop
• LESSON 3: COMMITMENT CRITICAL THINKING


  The nurse anticipates when to make choices without assistance from others and accepts accountability for decisions made, doing more than just considering the complex alternatives that a problem possesses
• Attitude

  • Confidence
  • Independence
  • Fairness
  • Responsibility
  • Risk-taking
  • Discipline
  • Perseverance
  • Creativity
  • Curiosity
  • Integrity
  • Humility