Nursing Concepts: Learning Critical Thinking

Critical thinking skills will be the No. 1 phrase you will hear most often during your nursing training this is very vital to nursing. Critical thinking requires the nurse to understand the needs of each unique client. The nurse will apply critical thinking skills during application and analysis through the following four levels that move from basic to complex thought process.

1. Knowledge - Basic thinking skills used for memorization. Repeat or remember the information you have retrained or you have learned.

2. Comprehension- Proving that the information you have learned can not only be repeated but can also be understood and explained in your own words.

3. Application - Being able to take the information you have learned in one situation and being able to apply to another situation completely opposite. The nurse must be able to choose which the less and more important data is and be able to prioritize using the knowledge and comprehension to modify what s/he knows to the each unique situation.

4. Analysis - Taking the complex information and breaking it down into smaller organized parts that are prioritized based on importance.

As a student nurse your thought process will grow in nature and complexity and your critical thinking skills will also grow. As a nurse you are anticipated to function at the comprehension and application levels, moving ahead to the analysis level as proficiency heightens. As a nurse you will be expected to make hundreds of choices about your clients care in a normal work shift. Critical thinking is a solid foundation of fine judgment with sound, justifiable decision making.

When taking into consideration your critical thinking, there are some major characteristics that contribute to your critical thinking skills. When you break down these 6 major characteristics they will help you better learn what to look for when helping apply critical thinking to your studies.

1. Reflection - Step back from your situation, gain perspective from situation, review the information again.

2. Divergent Thinking - Thinking outside the box, bringing the data that may seem to be unrelated together and linking it with the situation and finding the similarities.

3. Awareness- Knowing what you know and don't know. Find out what information you need to solve the problem at hand.

4. Reasoning and Scientific Analysis - Working through a problem, being able to look at a problem through all angles. Consider which situations apply and then discard the situations that do not.

5. Creativity - Being able to find simple and efficient ways to solve problems

6. Realism - Knowing and understanding your constraints with in which you must work.