Critical thinking is an essential skill for nurses to develop.
In Part 1 of this video we defined critical thinking.
We reviewed how it connects to the nursing process, benefits of critical thinking and
levels of critical thinking.
In part 2 of this video the components of critical thinking are reviewed and ways to
develop it will be suggested.
In Potter and Perry (2014) they go into detail about the components of critical thinking
in nursing.
These components are essential to inform the clinical judgements that nurses make on a
daily basis.
I think it just makes sense that in order to make safe client care decisions you need
a sound knowledge base specific to nursing.
Nurses draw upon information and theory from many areas to think holistically about client
care.
That is why you are studying so much now!
Nurses also learn from reflection on their experiences.
The more experience you have the more you are able to make safe adaptations to textbook
approaches to care.
Experience helps your critical thinking evolve beyond a basic level as you seek further evidence
to inform your actions such as best practice guidelines and interprofessional collaboration.
Competencies include necessary cognitive processes for making decisions about client care.
Some are quite general and you may already be familiar with them.
Others are specific to clinical situations and nursing.
Recall that the nursing process incorporates critical thinking in each step and is therefor
considered a critical thinking competency for nurses.
For further detail about these competences please see Potter and Perry (2014) chapter
11.
Critical thinkers are truth-seeking, open-minded, analytical, systematic, self-confident, inquisitive,
mature, disciplined individuals who admit to their own limitations.
Attitudes are a very important part of being a critical thinker.
How do you react when a client complains of anxiety?
Are you curious or do you pass it off as normal?
To make decisions nurses also use intellectual standards or guidelines that promote thoroughness,
precision, accuracy and consistency in all client care.
Professional standards relating to ethics, evidence informed evaluation criteria and
professional responsibility are also key for informing decision making.
As you can see there are a lot of things that influence your critical thinking ability.
As your knowledge and experience develop so will your ability to be a critical thinker.
Always strive to demonstrate the characteristics of a critical thinker.
Be curious, insightful, systematic, analytical, truth-seeking, open-minded, confident and
creative.
You can move beyond a basic level of critical thinking by changing your attitude and questioning
what you hear and see.
Be inquisitive.
There are other ways to develop your critical thinking skills.
Start routinely reflecting on your practice.
Reflection is necessary for self-evaluation and will help you develop.
Purposefully think back and analyze what happened and how you reacted.
Critical thinking involves framing of one's thoughts.
Use clear and precise language to reflect your thinking.
Notice any intuitions.
Intuition is developed from experiences in nursing.
It is a direct understanding without conscious deliberation.
It is important to confirm intuitions with appropriate clinical observations.
Concept mapping helps you identify the relationships between concepts.
It is a good way to visualise what is happening with your patient.
It helps to train you to organise information in a way that forms meaningful patterns among
data and gain a holistic understanding of the situation.
Remember, critical thinking expands with experience.
Keep working to change your approach to thinking and be sure to question what you hear and
see, even if you here it from an expert.
For more about critical thinking explore some evidence.
These references may be a good starting point.
For more you can subscribe, visit my website and click on videos of interest on this slide.
If you haven't seen part 1 of this video yet be sure to check it out.
Thank you for watching.