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Critical Thinking Critical Thinking and Nursing Judgmentand Nursing Judgment

NPN 105

Joyce Smith RN, BSN

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What is Critical Thinking?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

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Clinical Decisions Clinical Decisions in Nursing Practicein 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.

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Critical Thinking DefinedCritical 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

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Critical Thinking Skills Critical Thinking Skills

• Interpretation• Analysis• Inference• Evaluation• Explanation• Self-regulation

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Attributes of a Critical ThinkerAttributes 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

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Aspects of Critical Thinking 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

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Thinking and LearningThinking and Learning

• Levels of thinking in nursing• Basic critical thinking• Complex critical thinking• Commitment

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Critical Thinking CompetenciesCritical Thinking Competencies

• Scientific method• Problem solving• Decision making• Diagnostic reasoning• Clinical decision making• Nursing process

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A Critical Thinking ModelA 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

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Components of Critical Thinking Components of Critical Thinking

• Five components of critical thinking• Knowledge base• Experience• Competence• Attitudes • Standards

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Nursing Process OverviewNursing 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