"Critical Thinking"?

Manny92 · Jan 12, 2014

Hello SirenoftheSea! Critical Thinking is when you reach reasoned conclusions based on a reasoned process. Whenever you answer a difficult test question or are in particular situation where you need to solve a problem, you utilize critical thinking skills to come up with the best possible answer or solution.

One of my science teachers stressed this over and over in regards to nursing. My guess is that nurses and nursing students use critical thinking to assess & implement individualized care and to answer NCLEX questions, respectively.

It's what helped me get high scores on the PSB-NAT test. Best wishes to you! And don't stop asking questions! :)

acmj · Jan 12, 2014

^ Manny92 gave a really great answer. I'd like to also add that thinking critically means you are capable of moving beyond rote memorization. For example, you can memorize the name of every bone in the body, but what good does that you do if you cannot put that knowledge into practice? Nursing is an incredibly practical field in that you have to be smart AND be able to think on your feet, which is why it's so important to be able to think critically :) Good luck in all of your endeavors :)

emde · Jan 12, 2014

It also means that you don't simply accept what you read or hear. A critical thinker is able to compare what s/he knows with what s/he is trying to be persuaded to believe. When you think critically, you can think about other possibilities for a particular claim, not just what the author says or claims. That's what I learned in my Psychology class.

SL2014 · Jan 12, 2014

I totally agree with what these people said. It's "not accepting what you hear" and "using reasoning".

They tell you that a+b=c but why does it equal C and what does that mean?

SirenoftheSea · Jan 13, 2014

Thank you all for the wonderful responses!

My next question: Does nursing school teach you to think critically?

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Jan 13, 2014

Great responses!

Yes, nursing school helps prepare you to "think like a nurse", however it is up to the nursing student to learn, grasp the theory and practicum to be able to think critically.

I always suggest this book: Critical Thinking and Nursing Judgement; you can find it on Amazon; a teacher gave this book to me many moons ago as a practical nursing student; it helped me as a LPN, and in my BSN program, as well as an RN today. :yes:

kdmf12 · Jan 13, 2014

From what I understood, critical thinking is the ability to derive a logical and fair conclusion (or judgement) based on evidence that is presented without any informational bias whatsoever. Modern nursing is called "evidence-based nursing". It is important that a nurse can figure out something that makes sense rather than refer to what they memorized at school. Thus, a nurse must know how the bigger picture works rather than remembering what is written on the book.

**NICU Guy, BSN, RN** · Jan 13, 2014

Knowledge based questions are "What is enlargement of the heart called?" and an application or critical thinking question is "Your patient is on a diuretic (makes you pee). Which lab are you most concerned with?" or "..... which nursing intervention do you do first?"

SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP · Jan 14, 2014

Knowledge based questions are "What is enlargement of the heart called?" and an application or critical thinking question is "Your patient is on a diuretic (makes you pee). Which lab are you most concerned with?" or "..... which nursing intervention do you do first?"

^^^This!^^^

The other part to the critical thinking piece is that at least 2 answers will be correct, but you need to select the MOST correct answer. It can be frustrating at first until you get the gist of it.