Critical thinking skills help

[beckyboo1, BSN, RN]

I know critical thinking also comes with experience but my accelerated LPN to ADN class is really struggling with this. The instructors really have no advice. Is there something out there that any of you have used to help understand how to choose the best answer in a situation? In my hospital job, my supervisor praises me for my critical thinking skills but in class, I feel like I stink at it.

[NuGuyNurse2b]

Just do NCLEX questions. I have no idea what the mechanism is, but I struggled first semester with the "think like a nurse" mantra that our instructors kept hammering at us. And after some point, it just...happened. Like now, i can look at a question and rule out the 2 bad choices, and then try to pick the best choice from the remaining 2. Remember ABCs, know your lab values, know your pharmacology, the answer is almost always vital signs, handwashing, the therapeutic response that is the most honest or asks the client to explore their feelings, there is almost always something you can do as an intervention prior to calling the MD (except in really obvious cases).

[la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN]

I second the NCLEX question practice. Practice practice practice practice. Then, practice more. The more you immerse yourself in those weirdly worded questions the more you'll start to identify the bad habits (i.e. overthinking, adding to the scenario, etc.) that are causing you to miss things. It's really that you have to retrain yourself to read and answer these questions in a completely different way. It's no longer about memorization (with the exception of what NuGuy said about ABCs, labs, etc.).

[llg, PhD, RN]

In addition to doing some practice questions ... sit down with someone who can help you review the questions you get wrong. What was your thinking when you came up with the wrong answer? Why was it wrong? If you do that with several questions, you might see a pattern in the mistakes that you make, which will help you avoid making that mistake in the future.

For example, some students "latch on" to a wrong answer because it contains a key word/phrase that they associate with the topic -- or because that word/phrase is what they immediately thou ght of when they first read the questin. Because they are focusing on that key word/phrase, they fail to see that another reponse is actually a better choice.

Some students eliminate the correct answer because it seems to easy and obvious. They pick another response because they assume that the correct answer must be complex and hard to understand.

Reviewing and analyzing your mistakes can help you identify "where you go wrong" -- and that can save you a lot of time in learning how to answer test questions correctly.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

I'd like to add that you're not just learning critical thinking-like-a-nurse skills in the context of passing NCLEX. You're learning them to use when you are working in the RN role, making diagnoses and prescribing plans of care to implement yourself or to delegate to others.

So let me put in my plug for the NANDA-I 2012-2014. I know, I can see you rolling your eyes out there, but seriously: Reading it as the resource it is and not merely an expanded list of things to "choose for your care plans" will go a long way to showing you how a nurse thinks when presented with a lot of data. All of a sudden, the nursing process, which is not some esoteric crap invented by egghead academics to torture students, will unfold before your eyes, and in your head, and in your heart, and you will never lose it. You will find yourself equipped to make nursing diagnoses based on real data, and that's the essence of critical thinking. It will help you know the Why as well as the What.

"Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend; abroad, an introduction; in solitude, a solace; and in society, an ornament. It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. ... "

-- Joseph Addison

[beckyboo1, BSN, RN]

I'd like to add that you're not just learning critical thinking-like-a-nurse skills in the context of passing NCLEX. You're learning them to use when you are working in the RN role, making diagnoses and prescribing plans of care to implement yourself or to delegate to others.

So let me put in my plug for the NANDA-I 2012-2014. I know, I can see you rolling your eyes out there, but seriously: Reading it as the resource it is and not merely an expanded list of things to "choose for your care plans" will go a long way to showing you how a nurse thinks when presented with a lot of data. All of a sudden, the nursing process, which is not some esoteric crap invented by egghead academics to torture students, will unfold before your eyes, and in your head, and in your heart, and you will never lose it. You will find yourself equipped to make nursing diagnoses based on real data, and that's the essence of critical thinking. It will help you know the Why as well as the What.

"Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend; abroad, an introduction; in solitude, a solace; and in society, an ornament. It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. ... "

-- Joseph Addison

Already have a copy GrnTea per some advice you had given on another thread :) I'll take a closer look. I think I know what you're saying. Making care plans has definitely become easier as time has gone on. It just took awhile for that light bulb to come on.

[Episteme]

Let me tell you why (I think) the NCLEX style questions eventually turn on the light bulb in some students' heads. NCLEX is all about the nursing process which is the formal way nurses think (which becomes instinctive eventually)

What are they teaching you about the nursing process? How are you putting it into practice?