Critical Thinking Help

[Azure1213]

So any tips on how to improve critical thinking in the clinical setting? I only have 4 more weeks left of clinical and if i fail im done. My instructer is working with me and I feel like the biggest issue i have is application of my knowledge into the clinical setting. So far I've been trying to improve it by thinking of my client's overall condition, what I'm goint to see, and what symptoms they present, and keeping a notebook of basic nursing interventions. any other ideas?

[missyu]

I apologize, but I haven't read all of the above posters.

Do you do clinical prep the night or morning before clinical? In my second semester clinical my instructor had us do a prep sheet that REALLY helped all of us with our 'critical thinking skills'.

We would list all of these things in two columns:

-Medications & Fluids..................-Medical Diagnoses

-Focused Assessments................-Related Tests/Labs (Hi, Lo, WNL)

-Complications (S/s)....................- Applicable Nursing Diagnoses (3)

-Therapies /Treatments............... - Patient teaching/Nursing Interventions

Anyway we would list all of the things we would do under each category & then draw lines to everything it relates to. The sheet looks crazy with all sorts of lines going everywhere. (usually I try to color code everything by system) But really it helps you VISUALIZE all of the connections that your instructor expects you to be making in your head. That way when your instructor asks you why something is being done you can say because of X, Y & Z with confidence.

If you would like an example of what I am talking about I would be happy to scan an example sheet & send it to you. Good Luck!

Hi Nurse Kyles!

I just came upon this feed and this awesome post! I was wondering would you still have an example available?