Critical Thinking II

Critical thinking competencies are the cognitive processes that a nurse applies to make judgments regarding the clinical care of patients—these can be either general or specific.

There are three main general critical thinking processes: problem-solving, decision-making, and the scientific method.

Problem-solving is the act of responding to a challenging situation and finding a solution.

For example, a nurse takes action to assist an asthmatic patient experiencing breathing difficulties.

Decision-making is an intentional and focused attempt involving decisions that aim to select the best resolution to the issue.

For example, a nurse puts up the side rails for a patient who has just experienced an episode of seizures.

The scientific method is a multi-step process of formulating and performing experiments to gather data and solve problems systematically.

Specific critical thinking processes include diagnostic reasoning and inferences, and clinical decision-making.

Diagnostic reasoning is the dynamic thinking process for determining clinical evidence of a patient's health, while inferences are the conclusions drawn from the related evidence.

Nurses engage in clinical decision-making by recognizing the patient's problem and selecting the nursing intervention accordingly.