This week in the library I decided to look up some information on the use of critical thinking in Nursing, as nursing is the career I plan to pursue. The book I picked up to help me research this topic was “Nursing Process and Critical Thinking” by Judith Wilkinson. It was published in 2007 and highlights the importance of the use of critical thinking in the nursing world.
Nursing is a high-pressure job, rich in need for critical thinking skills. You have to be able to make quick decisions, and have to make them correctly. The need to consider many things in every decision they make. The art of nursing, the knowledge of nursing, the ethics of nursing, and the list goes on. Critical thinkers are rational and reasonable. When nurses have to make quick decisions they need to be both of these things. Nurses have a lot more contact with patients than doctors do. They need to think fast to say and do the right things. They need to assess the situation at hand and figure out what is appropriate to say to the patient and what is not. They need to be able to comfort anxious patients and detect things such as infected incisions.
Nurse’s decisions can affect a persons well being, or in extreme situations their survival. They need the ability to collect information, assess the information quickly and make responsible decisions. The author describes critical thinking as “thinking about you’re thinking while you’re thinking so as to make your thinking more clear, precise, accurate, relevant, consistent, and fair.”
I think that if I want to become a nurse I need to make sure my critical thinking skills are as up to par as possible in order to be the best nurse I can be. To me, nursing is a huge responsibility and I intend to take it very seriously.
Wilkinson, J. M. (2007). Nursing process and critical thinking. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall
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