Critical thinking

Critical thinking is something you will continue to develop even after graduating from nursing school. How far along are you in your program? You can use the nursing process to help you think through issues. Each school teaches this differently, but in general the steps include; assessing, diagnosing (nurse dx), planning, implementing, and evaluation. Nursing diagnosis handbooks can also help you think through these steps. Lastly, if you have a strong understanding of A&P and pathophysiology you will be better able to think through things, so brush up on those subjects if you need to.

I would recommend practicing critical thinking throughout your day--keep asking yourself why is that? Traffic is quite heavy today, why? Has there been an accident, construction ahead, is it a holiday weekend? And what, if anything can I do about it? Alternate route, turn up the radio, just go home and call out sick? Will I need to get gas?

Like wise this is how you can approach a patient problem. Ms. cholecystectomy complains of pain.Before you run for the narcotics, you need to do a lot more assessing. Where is the pain? What could be causing it? How long since last intervention, what does the patient want?

Or, a patient has a low bp. Why? Meds, shock, dehydrated, that's their normal? And what will you do about it? Call the MD, administer meds, get them something to drink, call a rapid response?

Sometimes you have to think through 2 or more problems, pt is in pain, and their bp is low, and they have a high fever, and their visitor would like a soda.

That is when you need to use nursing prioritization frameworks. ABCs, Mazlows, and my favorite, what is going to kill them first?

Thank you so much do you guys think doing case studies will help me develope critical thinking? And if you do, do you know are I can find a book of cases? Bec I have been searching google and I only found a couple of cases

LaCharity "prioritization, delegation and assignment" has great examples and there is an entire pdf online for Hargrove - Huttle "prioritization, delegation and management of care"

thank you guys for your input so as i was going through different example of critical thinking i came up with different questions to ask myself here there are. please let me know what you guys think of these questions and if i should change any of them or tweak it

What is the CC?

What did the doctor diagnose the pt with? And how does it relate to the symptom?

How are we the treating the symptoms of the pt?

Does the pt have any past medical history? And if so, are they taking any medications to help with PMH?

What is the current problem(pathophysiology)? And why do we want to solve this problem(what can it lead to)?

What is the priority for the patients? And why is this a priority over the other problems the pt is presenting?

What are the goals for this pt? what are your goals for the pt? think critically

What assessment will be done on this pt?

What is the status of the pt- incontinence, can't walk, pain, any dietary cautions? Ask nurse and pt

Is there anything else that I should know about my pt before I walk into their room?