Critical Thinking and Clinical Judgment Skills Written Assignment Essay

Critical Thinking and Clinical Judgment Skills Written Assignment - Essay Example Thus, critical thinking surpasses the provision of a way of ascertaining veracity, partial veracity or falsehood of a claim, to embrace and encompass the passing of judgment not just in academic fields, but in practical ventures as well. Nursing is one of these many ventures in which critical thinking is greatly applied. As a matter of fact, critical thinking and nursing are mutually inclusive of each other that any nurse devoid of critical thinking skills seldom succeeds. That critical thinking in nursing is indispensible is a matter which is underscored by the fact that it [critical thinking] helps nurses carry out the assessment process, question, evaluate, analyze and reconstruct the process of delivering nursing care, by logically and systematically challenging the established nursing theories and practices. The magnitude of critical thinking may therefore be seen in light of the discussion which ensues forthwith. Critical Thinking and Decision-Making in Patient Care In the firs t place, when going about the nursing process or duty, it will behoove the nurse to decide [by critically thinking through] the pieces of patient information which is critical, from those that are not. Those that have been determined as important may then be analyzed. After the analysis, the nurse may need to work closely and in consultation with the patient, so as to form a consensus, which is a mutually agreed upon care goals. In this case, the nurse will need to use sound judgment to arrive at key decisions, when and by studying a wide variety of sources and by making personal observations about the patient, in relation to his medical records. In this case, the nurse will need to incorporate and use a reflective component in decision-making. Herein, the reflective component is essentially a review of the judgements and the validation of these judgments’ appropriateness (Alfaro-Lefevre, 2009). Critical Thinking in Reconciling Nursing Practices and Ethical Issues When Admini stering Patient-Based Care Above all the needs of critical thinking in nursing, is the application of critical thinking in the delivery of patient-based care. Since patient-based supports the active participation of patients and their families in decision-making about individual options for a patient’s treatment and designing new care models for the patient’s treatment. This means that in administering patient-based care, the nurse will administer care which is responsive and respectful to an individual patient’s needs, values and preferences, and making sure that patient values are the rallying points to all clinical decisions. Herein, critical thinking will be critically applicable, since the administration of patient-based care sometimes seems constrained by, and to fundamentally clash with the dictates of medical and clinical rules and guidelines (Mann, 2012). Thus, Bowles (2000) observes that when administering patient-based care, the nurse will have to: ap preciate the importance of nursing guidelines and rules of medical care; factor the patient’s preferences, values and needs; and establish the status of the patient spelled out in his medical records; think through the options needed to strike the delicate balance among delivering patient-based care, not breaching nursing and medical guidelines and not subjecting the medical institution to legal liabilities. An instance which expressly exemplifies the situation above took place on