Transcript for:
Essential Critical Thinking in Nursing

in module 11 we want to look at basic concepts in terms related to critical thinking so critical thinking is again how we approach a question the nursing process the evidence-based practice or evidence-based decision making model are both examples of Applied critical thinking it's an essential skill that you will develop as a nurse you'll begin developing it throughout your education process some of the skills you already have it's just going to be a matter of fine-tuning those and really focusing in on those so again this section we just want to look at sort of some general terms and Concepts that are tied into critical thinking so in our reading guides or your reading objectives learning objectives again nursing fundamentals and again we'll be taking um some information from the nursing management professional Concepts text as well so for the second one you can do the hyperlink straight from the reading objectives um and nursing fundamentals you'll just need to open up your text and go to that section so critical thinking broad term and nursing we're talking about the idea and the definition of your text your uses is it's reasoning about clinical issues such as teamwork collaboration and streamlining workflow so critical thinking comes into play with with the nursing process when we're looking in patient care for the individual patient but critical thinking also is part of a systems-wide approach so when we're looking at the situation or scenario where we're dealing with more than one patient we need to make decisions of who we're going to focus on when we're looking at procedures that were carrying out and we want to make sure that we're doing them properly critical thinking becomes a part of the process of approaching all of those critical thinking again sort of feeds into the evidence-based practice model critical thinking steps away from doing this because this is the way I've always done at mindset um critical thinking is an open approach critical thinking starts with questioning it starts with a curious mind the purpose of using critical thinking again from your text we have the statements that critical thinking allows us to ensure the accuracy of our patient information is validated that the plans that we are developing through the nursing process are not based on just what's comfortable or easy for me as the nurse but that those plans and interventions are based on the patient's needs based on what current practice says is best for the patient it's based on Research so again it's using evidence-based practice as a foundation so on this slide we have some lists of attitudes that are part of critical thinking um can read through those read through the definitions and text but we're looking at the fact that Independence think or critical thinkers are independent they are going to be ones that at the extreme levels say I'm not I'm going to think for myself just because someone else tells me I need to do it this way it's okay to question why once we understand it and that if that's the best practice we're going to move on the idea of egocentricity and sociocentricity is looking at the fact that egocentric thinking is what's best for me what makes my day easier what makes my role in this situation the easiest social Centrist is what are the needs of the others it might be the patient it might be a larger a larger group of individuals it may be the practice or the the culture that we're in maybe the workplace social centristy is really focusing a question on what is best for in the big picture sense critical thinking is humble critical thinking questions everything but also realizes that as an individual I don't have the answers that's why I'm asking and again just go on down through the various attitudes be familiar with those the last one the curiosity is probably the key to critical thinking never be afraid to ask why um is really not as obnoxious as a two-year-old always asking why when we ask why um from a professional perspective it's because we want to get to best practices and best answers along with critical thinking skills that you'll develop over time you also develop clinical reasoning clinical reasoning is making sound judgments um in doing that we have to weigh Alternatives we have to be aware of what the information evidence is you will not start out with high skills and clinical reasoning because you won't have the clinical expertise and exposure to all the clinical knowledge and the research that's available so this is again a skill that you're going to learn and develop over time you'll begin the process during the education phase we'll give you a lot of the tools because again when we look back at the cusin competencies on evidence-based practice it's really looking at the idea that you are able to demonstrate some of these critical thinking clinical reasoning skills at a at least a basic level so again it's something you will be developing in terms of making judgments and reasoning there's two types of reasoning you'll use one is inductive reasoning and that is when they're used during the assessment and diagnosis phase of the nursing process you're going to gather information you're going to see within that information cues or indicators that you're going to interpret and analyze during the diagnosis phase and you're going to make judgments from that you're going to make conclusions you're going to create basically a hypothesis there's sort of a plan or an outcome expectation and you're going to develop a plan around that so that would be an inductive reasoning a lot of our patient care based on assessment ongoing assessments is going to be inductive deductive reasoning is the text talks about being a top-down approach here we're going to look at what does um best practice guidelines tell us which again was going to be based on good research evidence that in the case of the sign here on the slide quiet Zone evidence shows that patients get better quicker if they're able to rest if they're able to rest best if they're in a quiet environment so the deductive reasoning is putting practice in place based on the research that applies across the board so we're going to put those things in place so again the deductive reasoning of this case is developing policies not based on what we're seeing with our individual patients but because of what evidence tells us and research tells us is best for all patients just sort of review those be familiar with that as you develop your critical thinking skills as you develop those attitudes as you develop access and awareness of available research as you tap into the clinical expertise of others as you carry out that evidence-based decision making on a regular basis and develop your critical thinking you're going to use the reasoning skills you're going to become better at that it develops your clinical expertise and it leads to clinical judgment so again clinical judgment is the result of using critical thinking combining that with your clinical reasoning skills and making decisions for your patients that are in their best interest again you know don't start out with um full expertise in clinical judgment you learn that during the education process you're going to get the basics you're going to develop you're going to graduate again looking at the Houston competency list you're going to have the basic skills you are going to be a good beginning critical thinker you will have the information to make reason judgments you will be exercising good basic clinical judgment but you'll just further develop that as you continue on in your practice so again short module short section but just want to introduce you to these Concepts your focus as you're doing nursing process as you're engaged in evidence-based practice or evidence based decision making is to develop or approach it with a critical thinking mind develop those critical reasonings skills so that your clinical judgment becomes stronger and stronger and that becomes that clinical expertise that is one of the parts of evidence-based practice