Nurse Critical Thinking

Nurse educators play a pivotal role in teaching students how to critically think. Critical thinking is one of the most foundational skills in nursing education. It also greatly affects clinical judgement (OERMAN). In the classroom, students are encouraged to critically think by using discussion boards, case studies and written assignments. Discussion boards allow the student to converse about ideas that meet the patient and nursing standards fostering, an arena of higher cognitive thinking. Written assignments require research and focus on a specific topic, whereas case studies pull new and old information to determine the treatment needed. New information would be related to the patients new prescriptions and events leading up to a reason …show more content…
Since the two topics differentiate in body systems and location, the student should not have difficulty with grasp the information since it normally would not be easily confused. The following is an example of the short written assignment question the student would have to complete as a homework assignment. “How would a diet differentiate between a patient who is day one post-surgical cholecystectomy and a patient recently diagnosed with diabetes mellitus”? The student would be required critically think and decipher between diets for diabetes and surgical patients with bladder removal. Since the question indicates that surgery one day post-operative, the student must interpret the findings and draw the conclusion that the patient’s diet would be very limited and encompass clear liquids or full liquids due to the recent procedure. High cognitive thinking is not a skill that is learned overnight, only in the classroom, or limited to one semester in school. It is a skill that is ongoing and develops over time through experience and continuing education. Students should be encouraged to critically think in all situations. They should ask more questions such as; what is the purpose of what I am doing? And is it