Slide 1 1 Critical Thinking and Nursing Judgment NPN 105 Joyce Smith RN, BSN

Slide 2 2 What is Critical Thinking? It is something you do every day It is a life skill you learned as you developed into adulthood It is not a difficult task It is the way you make decisions in your daily life It can also be called deductive reasoning It is a system which allows nurses to make choices which are best for the patients

Slide 3 3 Clinical Decisions in Nursing Practice Clinical decision-making skills separate professional nurses from technical and ancillary staff. Patients have problems for which there are no textbook solutions. You need to seek knowledge, act quickly, and make sound clinical decisions.

Slide 4 4 Critical Thinking Defined Profetto-McGrath and others (2003) Critical thinking is both a process and set of skills. Chaffee (2002) Active, organized, cognitive process used to examine one’s thinking and that of others Settersten and Lauver (2004) Recognize, analyze, evaluate, and draw conclusions

Slide 5 5 Critical Thinking Skills Interpretation Analysis Inference Evaluation Explanation Self-regulation

Slide 6 6 Attributes of a Critical Thinker Seek the truth, nothing but the truth Accept others ideas and beliefs Watch for problems and plan for them ahead of time Be organized and work toward good results Trust in your own abilities Look for opportunities for learning Realize that there may be other ways besides yours

Slide 7 7 Aspects of Critical Thinking Reflection Review what you did and ways to improve Did you follow the standards? Language Always communicate clearly to the patient and staff Intuition Develop a “gut feeling” based on your experience and knowledge Realize what you do not know and then find out

Slide 8 8 Thinking and Learning Levels of thinking in nursing Basic critical thinking Complex critical thinking Commitment

Slide 9 9 Critical Thinking Competencies Scientific method Problem solving Decision making Diagnostic reasoning Clinical decision making Nursing process

Slide A Critical Thinking Model Models serve to explain concepts and help you make decisions and judgments about your patients. Kataoka-Yahiro and Saylor (1994) Define the outcome of critical thinking as nursing judgment that is relevant to nursing problems in a variety of settings

Slide Components of Critical Thinking Five components of critical thinking Knowledge base Experience Competence Attitudes Standards

Slide Nursing Process Overview Use of the nursing process enables the nurse to: Assess a patient’s health care needs Determine nursing diagnosis Plan care Implement nursing interventions Evaluate the effectiveness of care