Critical and Creative Thinking
1. Please response to the posting below by Share an insight from the postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Critical thinking is essential in nursing, it was noted to be fundamental when it comes to being a competent nurse. It is what is needed to make important decisions in any given scenario. It is required when typical practice fails and one needs to save a life. Also, it is even needed when performing the patient assessment and intervention. According to Papathanasiou, Kleisiaris, Fradelos, Kakou, & Kourkouta “Critical thinking is applied by nurses in the process of solving problems of patients and decision-making process with creativity to enhance the effect. It is an essential process for a safe, efficient and skillful nursing intervention” (2014). For instance, a three weeks patient came in for rule out sepsis with a fever of 101. A lumbar puncture was done in the emergency room before being transferred to the floor. Per doctor’s orders, start 200 mg of ampicillin, obtain blood culture, urine culture, cbc, cmp, and start maintenance fluids per protocol. In this situation, it is essential that that I obtain all the cultures and cmp, cbc first before administering the antibiotic. Otherwise, if antibiotic was given first, it might affect the results of the blood work and give false results, consequently, a wrong treatment. This showed the application of critical thinking in clinical practice that will provide positive outcome According to Crossetti, Bittencourt, Lima, Goes & Saurin “Critical thought is a skill that nurses need in order to improve clinical reasoning and subsequently implement a precise and safe care process.” (2014). This applied to the scenario.
Critical thinking, practice and clinical scholarship are all associated in one way or the other. As mentioned by Wilkes, Mannix, & Jackson “A key concept of clinical scholarship emerging from discussions in the literature is that it is an essential component of enabling evidence–based nursing and the development of best practice standards to provide for the needs of patients/clients. (2013). Its all about patient care and best possible outcomes, and these are what all nurses should strive for.