THINKING POWER

Objectives

• 1. Define critical thinking.

• 2. State how critical thinking is essential to nursing practice.

• 3. Identify strategies that will facilitate the development of critical and creative

thinking skills.

THINKING SKILLS

THINKING SKILLS

creative

analyticalpractical

Successful Intelligence depends on 3 thinking skills:

CRITICAL THINKING(Analytical thinking)

What is it?

The ability to reason

More than just recall

The ability to apply knowledge

Being innovative

Critical/Analytical thinking is:

when you take in information, examine the information by asking questions about it, and then put it to use in one or more of the following ways:

• Problem solving• Making decisions• Reasoning• Opening your mind to new things• Planning strategically

A Path to Critical/Analytical Thinking

Use information

Take in information

Ask questions

Taking in information

• This is your raw material

• It involves:– Recall– Input from what you hear– What you see– What you read– What you experience

Ask questions????

• ?what, when, where, why

• ?What effect does this info have

• ?How is this similar/different from what I know

More Questions??

• ?will this information help solve a problem or make a decision

• ?is this fact or opinion

Questioning is the key to linking what you learn to other information

Learning exercise

It’s 3 am in the hospital and Ms. Avon, the nurse, sees a patient’s overhead room light on. She walks into the room and says, ”Hi, Mr. Trent, I noticed your light on. How are you doing?”

The patient smiles and says. “I’m fine.”

The nurse observes that there are wads of used tissues on the floor; the sheets are all twisted; Mr. Trent’s eyes are puffy and red.

Conclusions

• The patient is fine, is normally awake at this hour, and may have been rubbing his eyes because of his allergies

• The patient is fine but can’t sleep because he napped all day. His eyes are always red and puffy

• The patient is not fine but doesn't want to talk about it

• The patient is not fine but doesn’t know how to ask for help.

Using Information

This is evident by:

• What you say

• What you do

• What you write

• What you create

Using information

Put what you learn to work by:

Problem solving

Making decisions

Strategic planning

Reasoning

Seeing new perspectives

How do we use “CT” in Nursing?

• Analyzing: separating or breaking a whole into parts to discover their nature, function a relationship

• Applying standards: judging according to established personal, professional, or social rules or criteria

• Discriminating: recognizing differences and similarities among thing or situations and distinguishing care fully as to category or rank

• Information seeking: searching for evidence, facts, or knowledge by identifying relevant sources and gathering objective, subjective historical , and current data from those sources

• Logical reasoning: drawing inference or conclusion that are supported in or justified by evidence

• Predicting: envisioning a plan and its consequences

• Transferring knowledge: changing or converting the condition, nature, form or function of concepts among contexts

SUMMARY

• REMEMBER THE COMPONENTS OF CRITICAL/ANALYTICAL THINKING

• IT IS A SKILL THAT TAKES PRACTICE

- KEY COMPONENTS FOR NURSES

1) OBSERVATION

2) MAKING CONNECTIONS

3) QUESTIONING

Bloom’s taxonomyKnowledge – remembering facts, names, events, rote recall

Comprehension –putting information into your own words

Application – taking learned information and using it in a new situation

Analysis – examining or breaking down the parts of information

Synthesis – combining pieces of information to create a larger and newer piece of information

Evaluation – assessing or judging the worth of information

CREATIVE THINKING

• Creativity forms a bridge between analytical and practical thinking

Practical thinking

CREATIVITY

Analytical thinking

Creative Strategies

• Brainstorming

• Shift your perspective

• Take a risk

• Set the stage– Be curious– Be spontaneous

2.Critical thinkers use informationby applying, analyzing, synthesizing,or evaluating it.

1. Information Received

3.Problem solverspropose a solution based on the evidence and their examination of that evidence.

4.Creative thinkers solveproblems by comingup with new and differentsolutions.

Creative thinkers are problemsolvers who broadened their thinking by becoming aware of more possibilities

Creative thinking:

You have to do things differently if you want different results

PRACTICAL THINKING

• This is the ‘common sense’ aspect

• It is developed from personal experience rather than formal or academic lessons

• It is putting into ‘action’ what you know

• there is also an emotional connection

Practical Strategies

• Make the most of your personal strengths

• Learn from every experience – both good and bad

• Apply what you learn – don’t keep repeating the same mistake