Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Nursing Care Processes
Lecture:Nursing process including clinical judgment and patient assessment; legal and societal expectations; and roles in improving patient care
Slide content:The Role of Critical Thinking in Clinical Judgment Critical thinking: Focuses on accurate, reasonable, and fair solutions to problems Helps nurses avoid bias Improves with reflection 9
Slide notes:To make effective decisions, nurses must think about a problem thoroughly and try to find an accurate, reasonable, and fair solution. This type of thinking is called critical thinking . One of the goals of critical thinking is to avoid biases, stereotypes, and prejudices. The patient benefits when a nurse uses critical thinking to make a clinical decision. Ideally, the nurse looks carefully at the problem and the context of the problem, considers his or her own biases, and considers several possible treatment options. Critical thinking skills improve when a nurse reflects on whether or not a decision had a good outcome. Nurses who take the time to analyze their own decision-making can make better decisions in the future. 9