Critical Thinking in Patient Assessment
The daily activities of a nurse in practice require one to engage in constant aspects of critical thinking to have effective patient care and the healthcare in general. One of the areas of critical thinking is the assessment of patients, and it involves several techniques. The most probable aspect of assessment is of the general appearance of the patient. Thisinvolves the nurse assessing the behavioral, physical and emotional state of the patient. The consideration which is critical here are if the patient looks well or unwell, flushed or pale, active or lethargic, calm or agitated, body posture and movement (Chabeli, 2007). Also, the nurse has to check for the vital signs which are the essential aspects which the nurse has to use to make sound and informed decisions. Critical assessment process then prompts the nurse to by incorporating inception, observation, percussion and palpation of the patient.
It is imperative that a nurse employs aspects of critical thinking rather than to follow the normal and the necessary checklist in health care. This is because despite the facts that symptoms of diseases and healing, there are possibilities that there would be different patients and they may vary from one to another. Critical thinking in approaching ways in which assessment of patients can be comprehensive and efficient for optimal health care (Chabeli, 2007). Critical thinking would enable a nurse to employ specific methods and techniques of assessment for each patient. Taking care of patient’s health requires a perfect level of individual assessment. A nurse should develop necessary traits which will make him or her avoid impulse or written down guidelines to assess the patients. Health care is, therefore, more prompt and more precise if one develops personal aspects of assessment coupled with critical thinking (Rubenfeld, & Scheffer, 2015). It is imperative to note that critical thinking is not only the process of solving complex problems about the patients, but it is the ability in which one develops constructive and creative in analytical reasoning.
Development of critical reasoning is not something which precedes an action, but it involves the development of the habit to call critical thinking when the moment presents itself. Making sound and rational decisions are imperative for effective health care is essential to every nurse. Therefore, according to Mabbott (2011), a nurse should develop the ability to think critically for the application of experience and knowledge, decision making and problem-solving is the essential for nurses. It is crucial for a nurse to be confident in whatever one is doing in the nursing practice. This is especially when one needs to gather information about the client and analyses it to give sound medication and care to the patient.
The critical thinking aspect which a nurse must develop is for the nurse to imbue the character to his or her daily activities. Victor-Chmil (2013) argues that a nurse should establish high standards of oneself and poses attributes of critical thinking such as honesty, patience, trustworthiness and confidence. Of primal issue is to take up responsibilities and seek out areas for learning which will prep one to be a competent practitioner of health care at whatever complex the situation is. A nurse is therefore given the impetus to gain the experiential and theoretical knowledge to think critically, by using intuition to know situations in which it is needed.
For example, a nurse can find him or herself in a situation where there is a patient who needed to have a pacemaker placed. The physician had recommended the patient to get two units of blood before going for the process. The nurse then administers it as per the protocol, and before the nurse goes for the second unit, he or she notices that oxygen levels had gone from 95% to 90% even. The nurse then tries to add more oxygen, but it remains at the low of 91% to 90% again. At this moment, the nurse will then wonder what is happening to the patient, and history of the patient shows congestive heart failure. Therefore, because of the extra fluid in which the patient has accumulated then it needs to be let out. Therefore, the nurse has to either have the patient pee and if it not possible, then he or she has to administer Lasix to the patient. Therefore. Administering Lasix will have the patient pee making the patient pee and be off the oxygen before he can get his pacemaker.
When a nurse summons intentional thinking, it is for the purpose of making clinical judgments by making the right decisions to the proper nursing action at the time of patient’s care. In this regard, a nurse must have a broad knowledge base which must be developed and gained each time. Rubenfeld, & Scheffer (2015) observes that the nurse will be in a better place to apply that knowledge in a clinical practice especially when a nurse interacts with clinical experience, it would allow him or her to recognize patterns and cues for reaching the correct conclusion. This will make one have intellectual humility, where one is aware of the limits of his or her knowledge and be open to seek and appreciate more knowledge.
Comments