Some experts define critical thinking as examining belief systems, testing previously held assumptions, and perceiving ambiguity. Others highlight critical thinking skills as the capacity to spot flaws and biases. Either way you choose to look at it, critical thinking is, well, critical and even more so in a nursing environment. Successful nurses think beyond their allocated roles to provide exceptional care for their patients. For example, a nurse might be responsible for changing a wound dressing, providing prescriptions, and checking vital signs during a shift. However, critical thinking abilities are required to recognize how a change in the wound may impact blood pressure and temperature and when those changes may necessitate emergency medical action.
Nurse practitioners see patients of all ages with various potential illnesses. Nursing critical thinking skills improve patient outcomes by allowing for evidence-based decision-making. Nurse practitioners collect a large amount of patient data through examinations, tests, and conversations. The information provided by each patient can be interpreted and analyzed to determine the best course of action for their health. The increased prominence of nurse practitioners in primary care has resulted in a growing emphasis on critical thinking in nursing. But how can nurses improve their critical thinking skills?
Improving critical thinking skills
Nursing, at its foundation, requires critical thinking. As a nurse, the necessity of developing critical thinking abilities cannot be stressed enough. Nurses face decision-making circumstances that affect patient outcomes, nurse-patient interactions, and interprofessional connections every day. Critical thinking skills influence nursing decision-making. Here is how they might strengthen their critical thinking abilities.
Further education
Those who want to improve their critical thinking skills will find several nursing programs that can assist them in enhancing their credentials, nursing competencies, and critical thinking skills. An ABSN online program, for example, presents the professional nurse's position as a member of the interprofessional healthcare team through ideas such as the nursing process, standards of practice, and nursing philosophy from a current and historical viewpoint. Critical thinking, therapeutic dialogue, and care are also introduced as strategies for improving nurse-patient interaction.
Ask questions
Developing the habit of asking questions will help nurses develop critical thinking abilities. When a colleague advises a specific course of treatment, ask which alternative options they considered first. Inquire as to why they chose the path they did. Examine the evidence they utilized to reach their conclusions. Think about if there is any way to validate the proof. Make suggestions for alternate techniques. These same inquiries can be used by the nurses in the future.
Shadow colleagues
The ability to comprehend medical knowledge and apply it to decision-making may be the most challenging aspect of critical thinking to master. In addition to staying current on best practices, nurses can benefit from the knowledge and experience of doctors, educators, and fellow nurses. Nobody understands critical thinking better than the specialists who have spent years in the position.
Clinical placements
Nursing students must develop self-confidence to deal with challenging clinical settings. A practicing nurse must retain and improve their self-confidence to offer accurate, high-quality, and safe patient care. If we expose student nurses to high-fidelity simulation, this can boost their confidence, allowing them to advance their competencies. Clinical placements are vital to healthcare professional education, providing nursing students with various experiential learning opportunities. It enables them to self-reflect while facing challenging conditions to prepare and develop for the future.
Clinical placements build experience, and experience influences the speed and capacity of nurses to make informed clinical decisions. Novice nurses may struggle with this procedure, whereas experienced nurses could rely on their intuition, followed by quick action. Clinical reasoning is a learned ability that requires perseverance and active participation in a purposeful practice design to enhance performance.
Nurses must develop critical thinking skills and grasp how judgments and decisions are made in complicated healthcare systems to obtain such skills. Clinical placements are the most significant component of many students’ nursing education. Nursing judgment, complex problem-solving abilities, socialization in the profession, and mastery of psychomotor skills are all acquired in the clinical setting.
Reflection
At the end of each nursing shift, nurses should reflect on the day's events. There will always be instances they could have handled differently or better answers to challenges they encountered, so it's vital to go through those to identify where improvements can be made. Nurses should take some time to reflect on the clinical day: what went well, what could be changed, and what is needed to enhance professional behavior and thought processes. Going over decisions and interactions allows nurses to critically examine them in a low-pressure atmosphere. Finding out what they could have done differently will enable them to make better judgments in the future when confronted with similar situations.
Conclusion
Nursing attracts those with inherent nurturing characteristics, a desire to serve others, and an aptitude for science or anatomy. However, another essential quality that influential nurses share that is frequently overlooked is the ability to think critically. Critical thinking includes identifying an issue, determining the best answer, and selecting the most effective approach to solve the program. Then, following the execution of the strategy, critical thinkers evaluate the scenario to decide whether it was effective and could have been done better. As you can see, critical thinking is a talent that can be applied in many areas of life.
A nurse's critical thinking ability can directly impact patient safety. Nurses must be able to detect changes in a patient's status, undertake independent nursing interventions, anticipate orders, and prioritize. These acts necessitate critical thinking, advanced problem-solving abilities, and the capacity to communicate effectively. Patient safety may be jeopardized if a nurse cannot deliver clinically competent care.
