Nursing is the largest healthcare profession in the United States, with nearly 4.7 million registered nurses (RNs) nationwide. They play a crucial role in the healthcare system, often being primary providers of hospital patient care and delivering long-term care services.
To provide effective care, nurses must deploy a combination of technical and soft skills to improve their patients’ health. Research has found a link between a nurse’s skill and experience and their patient outcomes.
For example, a study reported lower inpatient mortality rates for a variety of surgical patients in hospitals with more highly educated nurses. This is why developing essential skills, especially critical thinking, is important if you’re pursuing a career in nursing.
Critical thinking grants nurses the ability to make decisions that can optimize patient care, leading to better outcomes. This article covers the value of critical thinking in healthcare and why it’s worth considering courses, like online EdD programs, that teach the skill.
What is critical thinking?
While there is no universally accepted definition for critical thinking, there are a few unifying concepts that many people agree upon. As described by ScienceDirect, critical thinking consists of various components, including:
- Evaluating the nature and quality of any information and its source
- Recognizing any internal and external bias
- Separating facts from opinions
- Distinguishing between sources for information (e.g., primary and secondary)
- Synthesizing information
- Using the information to make informed decisions
Critical thinking is an “intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication.”
Another definition of critical thinking comes from the American Psychological Association. They describe the skill as “directed, problem-focused thinking in which the individual tests ideas or possible solutions for errors/drawbacks.”
While they’re two very different definitions, they do feature the same above-listed unifying concepts. It’s very common to find that the meaning of ‘critical thinking’ will also depend on the context.
For example, the meaning and application of critical thinking would vary, for example, in an academic context versus in a practical environment, like a hospital. A nurse learning and deploying critical thinking skills would look different than a scholar writing a research paper.
Nurses & critical thinking
For nurses, critical thinking involves evaluating a situation, identifying potential problems, and determining the best solutions in real-time. As part of the process, the nurse would also have to be able to consider factors like the patient’s well-being and beliefs as part of the clinical decision-making.
Why it’s important
Nurses are typically the primary contact and health providers in many settings, especially in hospitals. If there’s a change in a patient’s status or they have any concerns, the nurse will be the first one to notice and take action.
It’s important for a nurse to be able to apply critical thinking skills in these situations to better understand and anticipate the needs of their patients. This can positively impact the quality of care and patient outcomes.
How nurses can use the skill
Nurses can integrate critical thinking in various aspects and tasks of their professional lives to assess situations and make informed decisions. These include:
Enhanced communication: Critical thinking can help nurses improve their communication and collaboration skills. This is because it involves actively listening, asking informed questions, and avoiding judgment. This can potentially lead to improved patient outcomes and interdisciplinary communication.
Clinical judgment: Applying critical thinking when monitoring a patient can improve clinical judgment. Since the process involves assessing and integrating information about a patient to better understand their needs, it helps a nurse decide when clinical action is necessary.
Problem-solving: Critical thinking is often tied to a person’s problem-solving ability. With nursing and the overall healthcare industry being fast-paced and often requiring alternative solutions, being able to apply critical thinking skills is crucial. It can help nurses better meet their patients’ needs and tackle ongoing challenges, like the nursing staff shortage.
Critical thinking also plays an important role in personal and professional development. The skill facilitates a person’s ability to be open-minded and reflect on their decisions and actions after the fact, so they can identify areas of improvement and pursue growth.
Learning & promoting critical thinking
Critical thinking is a skill that can be learned through professional and personal development. For nurses, it would grow as they gain experience and advance through their career and can be fostered in their everyday life, too.
The ability to think critically and respond to situations isn’t a trait an individual is born with. It develops over time and requires nurturing. Below is a list of ways nurses can nurture and promote their critical thinking skills.
Listen actively: Active listening is a technique that is part of critical thinking and also helps nurture its growth. It’s when a person concentrates on listening to properly understand, process, and remember what is being said. It also includes observing the speaker’s body language and behavior.
Be a lifelong learner: Learning should go beyond the textbooks and classroom. Continuous learning through courses and professional development classes not only helps increase your knowledge to inform your actions but also fosters critical thinking.
Open your mind: Being open-minded and curious is crucial to critical thinking. Ask questions to find out more about a situation or event, and be open to looking through other perspectives to find a solution or answer.
Use critical thinking tools: There are many ‘tools’ like analysis and questioning methods that can help facilitate critical thinking. For example, the SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can be used to evaluate a situation by breaking it into strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Be empathetic: Empathy plays a massive role in fostering and deploying critical thinking. It can help the person explore a situation through diverse perspectives and reduce bias.
Founder Dinis Guarda
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