Critical Thinking!!!!!! Whatever!!

Nursing Students Student Assist

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Do you find yourself questioning and re-questioning rationales related to "critical thinking" questions? Yeah we all do..... I just felt like posting about this elusive "great white buffalo". I have researched, between study sessions, about critical thinking in academia.... I found a quote from an online forum hosted by a professor I really felt had some decent insight. "using specific content to teach critical thinking skills presents inherent dangers".

I find this to be true. The critical thinking skills I have developed, I have done so through EXPERIENCE!!! And... that's how YOU will develop them as well. Once you have become an RN and are practicing, you will be able to delineate alternative solutions and think beyond the right here and now. For most of us the fundamental aspects of what nursing is, should be the focus of our education. I feel that actually these ridiculous "critical thinking" demands are prematurely being put on students. Critical thinking is a part of the NCLEX exam, which comes at the end of the program after one has a solid basis of BASIC nursing knowledge and exposure (some experience).

It seems schools are so NCLEX PASS RATE happy, that some would haphazardly introduce such dangerous requirements so early on.... Experience is the real teacher for critical thinking... NOT THEORY!!!!!

Well I took a critical thinking course as my humanities.

I'm curious what relationship you saw (if any) between how 'critical thinking' was defined and practiced in that class as opposed to the way nursing instructors used the term, especially in regard to test questions.

"Critical thinking" is the crutch used in nursing school to say it's this answer just because.

LOL! Sure did feel that way with some instructors!

I'm curious what relationship you saw (if any) between how 'critical thinking' was defined and practiced in that class as opposed to the way nursing instructors used the term, especially in regard to test questions.

I am not in nursing school yet so I can't really say. I just took the class because I thought it would be an asset for making the best decision in a timely manner. This class made us draw outlines, write short papers, and do lots and lots of research. I couldn't find any real way to apply it to anything that wasn't a personal goal. She talked a lot about persuasion and how best to get the other person to think your way. Quite annoying especially if you had a different opinion than the teacher.

Critical thinking as a buzz phrase in nursing is stupid and demonstrates the poor quality of education in nursing.

The idea of testing for critical thinking skills within nursing school test questions is a noble one. But in the real world, the actual quality of the questions from the publisher's test banks doesn't always live up to what should be minimal standards.

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So as a nursing instructor, I can promise this isn't a great white buffalo. We look at critical thinking as your ability to look through the JUNK and find the GOLD. You'd be surprised how many students want to tell me their patient's primary nursing problem is pain (just because they are 1 day post op), when the patient is breathing 30 times a minutes and has a POX of 90% on RA. Or the biggest complication from a post op is RISK for a DVT as opposed to an actual DVT or Sepsis. Critical thinking is something you learn with some experience but it is also something we are trying teach. Teaching it isn't easy and testing/evaluating it isn't either. A big part of nursing is about anticipation, and being able to anticipate what might go wrong. You do get better with time and experience, but until then the nursing process helps you get there too.

I don't know why student nurses have to think critically while they're still learning and need to learn a lot. I can't think of an appropriate definition for "critical thinking". In fact, everyone can think! Putting together the word "critical" and the word "thinking" does not make any sense to the practice of nursing/healthcare. It's all about working with people and solving problems. People can't see problems if they have too little experience in a field. Expecting students to answer clinical questions based on clinical facilitators' perspectives is absurd and awkward.

Specializes in LTC and Pediatrics.

Well, when you get to one of those many questions where two answers are correct, you need some way of determine the answer that is really the correct one. One way we developed this in school was case studies where we had to come up with all possibilities in a scenario. Then we had to figure out which one(s) were right for that scenario based on the information we were given. While you hear about it in school, you are also learning it in your case studies, labs and clinicals. Believe me, all that you get in school will come in handy when you get out there working. As was said in a PP, the easy answer many times is not the issue.

Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

I'm curious as to what the "inherent dangers" are.

I don't know why student nurses have to think critically while they're still learning and need to learn a lot. I can't think of an appropriate definition for "critical thinking". In fact, everyone can think! Putting together the word "critical" and the word "thinking" does not make any sense to the practice of nursing/healthcare. It's all about working with people and solving problems. People can't see problems if they have too little experience in a field. Expecting students to answer clinical questions based on clinical facilitators' perspectives is absurd and awkward.

I guess its because they have to learn how to think critically too? Nobody expects students to critically think the same as more experienced RN's but they should be showing that they can try to put clues together. That's what critical thinking means to me.

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