Critical Thinking: you have it or you don't. Agree or disagree?

[LTCnurse11]

I was told during my brief stint working med surg that you either have critical thinking or you don't. Thoughts?

[Despareux]

Critical thinking doesn't mean having immediate answers; it also means knowing which questions to ask. I do believe that some have more potential than others--part of what makes us who we are.

[CVON]

LTCnurse11, I am glad you brought up this topic. I'm a new grad RN and I just completed my first full day with my preceptor, with my anxiety level going through the roof. While she did not say I was incompetent for not knowing exactly what to do or look out for with a patient, she did mention getting away from being task oriented and being more patient focused and thinking critically. I understand her point since we are supposed to be our patient's advocates, but I think we expect too much if we think that finishing nursing school will somehow imbibe you with the magical ability to think critically when it comes to patient care. I have read some of the comments on this forum which seem to imply that very thing. It only makes for increased anxiety and stress in us new nurses and those who are still learning this skill. It's like expecting someone with one child to have the same instincts and abilities as someone with a dozen children. Just saying.

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

I think critical thinking is something that needs to be developed and then fine tuned.

I do wish there was more of a combination of the old days of diploma nursing and the academic programs. Someway to keep the academic method but to be able to handle a full caseload out of nursing school.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

I think critical thinking is something that needs to be developed and then fine tuned.

I do wish there was more of a combination of the old days of diploma nursing and the academic programs. Someway to keep the academic method but to be able to handle a full caseload out of nursing school.

And while we're being nostalgic for a time long past, let's also remember that when diploma programs were the rule rather than the exception, it was vanishingly rare to have more than two or three IVs on an entire 45-bed floor (yes, true story), people were admitted the night before their routine cholecystectomies and kept in for a week, and ICUs were a fairly new concept. I remember those days very clearly and cut my patient-care teeth in them. It was much easier to be "able to handle a full caseload" of people when many of them weren't as ill or burdened with the technology as the ones we have today. That time is dead and gone, and it ain't coming back.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

And while we're being nostalgic for a time long past, let's also remember that when diploma programs were the rule rather than the exception, it was vanishingly rare to have more than two or three IVs on an entire 45-bed floor (yes, true story), people were admitted the night before their routine cholecystectomies and kept in for a week, and ICUs were a fairly new concept. I remember those days very clearly and cut my patient-care teeth in them. It was much easier to be "able to handle a full caseload" of people when many of them weren't as ill or burdened with the technology as the ones we have today. That time is dead and gone, and it ain't coming back.

I don't think that is what was meant. As a preceptor of senior nursing students from a variety of schools and programs I have noticed dramatic differences in my students readiness to handle a full case load. A full case load would mean (to me) 4 med-surg patients, two relatively stable ICU patient, or one unstable ICU patient None of them are, but some are much close than others. Students from one particular school have always been much closer the being able to function independently, while students from another school are all practically helpless. Students from other schools fall in between.