Critical Thinking and Nursing Practice
Definition of Critical Thinking It means reflective reasoning that guides a Nurse in generating approaches to manage nursing care issues
Skills required in Critical Thinking 1- Critical Analysis 2- Inductive reasoning 3- Deductive reasoning 4- Making valid inferences
Skills required in Critical Thinking 5- Differentiating facts from opinions 6- Evaluating the credibility of information sources 7- Clarifying concepts 8- recognizing assumptions
Definition of Critical Analysis Application of set of questions to a particular situation , to determine essential information, while discarding unnecessary data.
Definition of Inductive Reasoning Moving from specific examples to a general conclusion E.g., having signs of dehydration would Most probably indicate dehydration
Definition of deductive reasoning Withdrawing specific conclusions from general premises E.g. Having systematic infection implies that fever most probably exists
Definition of problem solving Clarifying a problem by gaining more information about its nature in order to suggest possible answers and solutions
Definition of decision making Is a critical thinking process in order to choose the best actions to meet a desired goal.
When do we really need to make a decision as nurses? When there are several available mutually exclusive choices Or when we need to decide whether we should act or not at all
Examples of areas where nurses makes decisions 1- Time management 2- value issues e.g. Confidentiality 3-priority 4- scheduling care activities Besides: Nurses help clients through treatment choosing decisions by delivering sources of information