Need Help with Foundation of Nursing Text

Critical thinking is just thinking further than the first thing that comes to mind. It is not dismissing a simple symptom as one thing without thinking about the other possibilities. For ex...59 y/o ltc pt c chronic pain d/t back & hip injury many years prior. Very Whiney, Very attention seeking. Begins to c/o n/v, "just can't get up today, crying, "the kids haven't called" (not in the past half hour) still hurting, note: on percocet q 4 while awake and has internal morph pump. Has private driver who comes to take her to town and to medical appt. Med nurse this day dismisses her c/o as attention-seeking. I, looked closer at her because somewhere in the back of mind I remember her going to md for an increase on the morph a month ago. And she went again 2 days ago. Find it in the chart...morph has increased d/t her c/o steady for past 3 months. Percocet has gone from QID to q4 while awake in past 2 weeks. I take vitals. B/P in crapper, O2sat in crapper. I insisted that she be taken off some of the narc. That she was in resp. depression. I was only working PRN at this time, so the others said I had not seen her in a while. Her behavior was getting worse because she had a son who was dying adding to her mental depression and attention seeking. This is another part of critical thinking...looking at every possibility. Turns out she went to the hosp...resp depression. Came back on much less narc. But, still dealing with her other issues. You have to look at everything to see why someone is having the symptoms they are having. Watch House. They use alot of critical thinking. There is no easy way to learn it except to learn how to see a pt for everything. Know what your drug's side effects are, what could possibly manifest from their diagnosis. Simply put....STUDY study, study. And NO...you will not be good at this right off the bat...it takes experience and time to learn. What they are trying to teach you is how to keep thinking, searching for more answers...As the old adage goes....Think outside the box. I know this did not make it easier for you, but rest assured that in time you will be critical thinking and not even realize it. AS for calculations: I, personally, have not had to use it very much since graduating. I refresh myself with the drug book. The formula is in there. Memorize the formulas. And know, you can always call the pharmacy if the answer isn't clear cut. For school...memorize the formula.

is anyone taking the nclex this month