What does "critical thinking" really mean?!?

[Tally4970]

I have read multiple threads and topics that stress that nursing is all about critical thinking. Everybody stresses the high importance of this, my question is, what does that actually mean?

For example, critical thinking means to me; common sense, using your head, thinking things through. Not just superficial thinking, but following through the whole thought and asking questions along the way.

That being said, is this what everybody means when they talk about critical thinking in nursing?

I start my clinical portion of my BSN program in the fall. I just finished all my nursing prereq's. My current GPA is 3.9, but I am worried how I learned and studied previously will not be good enough......how do I know or prepare for nursing critical thinking?

[SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN]

Critical thinking is one of those skills you can't learn from a book. It's developed over time through experience and education.

Example:

One of my good friends had a patient on the oncology ward one night. He was a long-time patient and had been admitted for about 3 weeks on his current admission. He was a favorite and everyone knew him. He was intelligent, quick-witted, and very easy to talk to.

So one night when he became very argumentative, stubborn and had an episode of incontinence, she realized something was wrong beyond his attitude. She did a mental status check and realized he wasn't A&Ox3 anymore, an acute change in a normally healthy patient.

Now this patient had developed a little pimple-like papule on his knee a few days prior. There was a red area around the papule that was marked, but it hadn't seemed to have spread all that much. However, she paged the cross cover, told them about her findings and had them order blood cultures with a battery of labs, suspecting that he might have gone septic.

Cross cover came upstairs, did an assessment, ordered the cultures/labs and they continued to monitor him. Over the course of the night, he declined further to the point where they had to transfer him to the ICU. Lo and behold, he was indeed septic per both the labs and the cultures and the nurse had caught the early signs of the systemic infection.

There are a couple of points here where critical thinking was evidenced: first was the fact that the nurse was able to take incontinence and the patient's change in affect and come up with a potential for sepsis. Secondly was, suspecting sepsis, she contacted the crosscover, had them complete an assessment and asked that they order the appropriate labs. Her further monitoring throughout the night ensured that he was transferred to a higher level of care at the appropriate time.

That's just one example, and those nurses who've told you that critical thinking is important are quite correct. That IS the gist of nursing. That's the "how" when it comes to saving lives.