The ability to make sound and timely decisions is crucial for success in any profession.
However, decisions made without a thorough analysis of a given situation may lead to more problems than solutions.
Critical thinking demands an in-depth evaluation of the issues at hand.
You can develop this skill from the beginning of a graduate certificate in nursing degree and other relevant courses.
Critical thinkers tend to take a holistic view of a given scenario and use their analytical, observation, interpretation, reasoning, reflection, experience, and rational thinking skills when deciding on a course of action to take.
Critical Thinking in Nursing
Nursing plays a vital role in the healthcare industry.
Quality patient care depends on the services of the nursing staff. Nurses are usually the first point of contact for the patients and help them communicate their concerns to the doctors.
Therefore, sound critical thinking skills in nursing professionals will make for a better patient experience.
Following is a list of those ways you can use to improve your critical thinking if you are a nurse:
Active Listening
Listening is often termed an underrated skill.
However, active listening enables transparent communication between a nurse and a patient. Critical thinking and active listening help the nurses understand where the patient is coming from.
The lesson here being that you should try and comprehend the patient’s point of view with an open mind.
Continuous Professional Development
Learning never stops. Nursing is a profession where you are required to deal with multiple patients, attendants, and healthcare teams at a time.
Therefore, each day brings with it new challenges.
And thus, dealing with the responsibilities of the profession requires expert critical thinking skills in providing quality care and ensures timely support through innovation, flexibility, observation, intuition, analytical and risk-taking abilities.
These nursing skills are highly valuable, and can be easily acquired through a masters in clinical research online program that enables nursing professionals to gain job-ready competencies.
Continuous learning allows the development of these essential nursing skills for improved performance and patient satisfaction.
Avoid Judgment and Bias
Be consciously aware of your judgment and biases. As humans, we tend to measure another person’s perspective against our own.
As a critical thinker, a nurse should be able to suspend their own views and value judgments that may hinder open communication.
Be Inquisitive
Inquisitiveness is a key aspect of critical thinking as it means asking questions and following your curiosity.
Ask questions to understand the reasoning and logic behind certain actions and decisions.
It will help you broaden your knowledge base, make informed decisions, offer alternatives, and evaluate different approaches of patient care.
Find a Coach or a Mentor
Coaches and mentors are experts in their own fields and help others on their journey to success.
Surround yourself with people with experience to learn from their life and gain a clearer perspective and inspiration for doing better.
Look for a senior in the nursing staff who can play that role, help you along the way, and who can give you advice on your career’s most-pressing questions.
Be Self-aware
A self-aware person is someone who knows why they take certain decisions and why they behave the way they do.
Self-awareness allows a person to evaluate their traits, habits, behaviors, values, belief system, biases, strengths, and weaknesses.
It is essential as a critical thinking nurse because it helps in maintaining professional conduct.
Analyze Data for Decision Making
As a nurse, you will be continuously monitoring and observing your patient’s vitals, patient feedback, and the symptoms the patients are displaying.
In case a patient needs urgent attention, you will be required to take the available data and decide if it’s sufficient enough for making a sound decision.
Critical thinking gives you the ability to evaluate data and reach an informed decision.
Develop Empathy
Apart from health care, a nurse also provides patients with reassurances about recovery. Empathy goes beyond just basic communication.
Along with the patients, families and friends of the patients also need emotional support during difficult times and may often behave unreasonably.
As a nurse, you should develop empathy to understand their sentiments and respond accordingly.
Become Member of Professional Nursing Forums
Nursing forums bring together like-minded professionals to share learning, experience, and meaningful insights.
It enables everyone in the group to acquire collective knowledge and useful ways for an improved nursing service.
Forums are a great way of developing professional networking and connect individuals with similar interests and goals.
Look for Growth Opportunities
Always lookout for opportunities to work on special projects along with your primary role. It can include volunteering work or providing support to a senior.
Working closely with seniors will help you gain hands-on experience of how to approach a situation from a leader’s perspective.
It will enhance your critical thinking and leadership capabilities.
Final Thoughts
Critical thinking skills are just as important for nursing professionals as they’re in any other industry.
Nurses can improve their critical thinking abilities by practicing active listening, self-awareness, asking questions, and avoiding personal biases.