Critical Thinking

Critical thinking involves using the nursing process. The nursing process is merely the problem solving process. It is a step-by-step method used to rationalize a solution, or explain why we came to that solution. It can be applied to any problem and solution you are working on and is not just used for care planning. So, if your problem is to show why anything below the waist level is considered contaminated the thing to do is work through the steps of the nursing process to prove this.

• Step #1 - Assessment - gather your facts of the situation. What is going on below the level of the waist? Assess the situation. Use all your senses. Look, see, listen, and touch what is below the level of the waist. You might be surprised at what you find!
  
• Step #2 - Determine the problem - sort out the abnormal data. What do you notice about the data you found below the waist level that contributes to possible contamination? Dirt? Stuff that probably never got looked at before you looked at it today? A wad of old chewing gum someone stuck in a corner? Yuck!
  
• Step #3 - Plan - What you will do. You already know this. Anything that goes below the waist you will consider contaminated and now you (hopefully) have a better understanding and reasoning of why. You can't see it and have no idea what was there before or when it was cleaned last.
  
• Step #4 - Implementation is carrying out the plan
  
• Step #5 - Evaluation is determining if the plan of action was effective
  

are you looking for test taking help? critical thinking is pretty much having to do with why the answer is what it is--the rationale behind the correct answer. in answering nursing questions a number of things contribute to the correct answers:

• you need to know the pathophysiology of diseases you are being tested over. you must know the progression of symptoms as they go from mild to serious to fatal. this helps you determine priorities of care. interventions are geared to the symptoms.
  
• you must also know the medical tests and treatments that the doctor is going to order. know which tests and treatments fit with each sign and symptom the patient has.
  
• you have got to know the steps of the nursing process and what goes on in each step. nothing will trip you up as badly as placing a test question situation in the wrong step on the nursing process. every step of the nursing process is a link in a chain of events. a test question will often test your knowledge of a break somewhere in this link. most students want to gravitate to nursing interventions which come in step #3 of the nursing process, but be sure that this is what the question is asking. instructors know that students will do this so they use nursing interventions as distracters (wrong answers deliberately designed to draw you away from the correct answer!).
  
• you just have to know the various principles of science, medicine and nursing behind the actions and interventions that are being done for the patient by the nurse and others in healthcare. this is where you pull in information from those pre-requisites you had to take to get into the nursing program.
  
• always ask yourself "why". why does the patient have this symptom? why did the doctor order this? why would the patient be having this particular problem based upon what the question revealed? why? why? why? that is part of what gets you into your critical thinking component on these questions. the answers are often never as easy to find as you think. you have to go through the above things i just listed for you to get to the right answer.
  

you should also review the posts and weblinks on this sticky thread: https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/looking-test-taking-224581.html - looking for test taking strategies

here are some other threads where students posted test questions and the critical thinking behind them was discussed:

• https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/i-dont-get-313958.html - i dont get this answer, help!!
  
• https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/doing-assignment-can-340254.html - doing an assignment...can someone help me??
  
• https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/exam-question-scabies-338246.html - exam question on scabies
  
• https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/burrows-solution-question-351619.html - burrow's solution question
  
• https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/fluid-electrolyte-questions-349405.html - fluid & electrolyte questions
  
• https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/not-sure-245326.html - not sure...
  
• https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/ulcers-244839.html - ulcers
  
• https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/spinal-injury-244841.html - spinal injury
  
• https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/please-help-356223.html - please help
  
• https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/what-to-assess-363134.html - what to assess?
  

for fluids and electrolytes, see the weblinks listed on post #23 of this sticky thread: https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/pathophysiology-p-microbiology-145201.html - pathophysiology/ a & p/ microbiology/ fluid & electrolyte resources. you may also find a number of the other posts on that thread helpful to you as well. iv resources are posted on this sticky thread: https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/any-good-iv-127657.html - any good iv therapy or nursing procedure web sites including a chart of commonly used iv fluids, what each contains and what they are commonly used for. both of these sticky threads are in this forum.