NUR 2058 DQ Developing Clinical Judgment
NUR 2058 DQ Developing Clinical Judgment
One of the most important skills a nurse needs is clinical judgment. This is a skill that can be learned. Reflect on your own ability to critically think and the reading for this module.
When see yourself as a nurse and giving care, discuss what qualities and behaviors you possess that make you a person that would have good clinical judgment. What three strategies can you use to develop better clinical judgment? As a nurse, what areas of the nursing process do you think might be more challenging to you given the critical thinking and clinical judgment skills you have now?
This chapter examines multiple thinking strategies that are needed for high-quality clinical practice. Clinical reasoning and judgment are examined in relation to other modes of thinking used by clinical nurses in providing quality health care to patients that avoids
NUR 2058 DQ Developing Clinical Judgment
adverse events and patient harm. The clinician?s ability to provide safe, high-quality care can be dependent upon their ability to reason, think, and judge, which can be limited by lack of experience. The expert performance of nurses is dependent upon continual learning and evaluation of performance.
Nursing education has emphasized critical thinking as an essential nursing skill for more than 50 years.1 The definitions of critical thinking have evolved over the years. There are several key definitions for critical thinking to consider. The American Philosophical Association (APA) defined critical thinking as purposeful, self-regulatory judgment that uses cognitive tools such as interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, and explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations on which judgment is based.2 A more expansive general definition of critical thinking is
. . . in short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem solving abilities and a commitment to overcome our native egocentrism and sociocentrism. Every clinician must develop rigorous habits of critical thinking, but they cannot escape completely the situatedness and structures of the clinical traditions and practices in which they must make decisions and act quickly in specific clinical situations.3
There are three key definitions for nursing, which differ slightly. Bittner and Tobin defined critical thinking as being ?influenced by knowledge and experience, using strategies such as reflective thinking as a part of learning to identify the issues and opportunities, and holistically synthesize the information in nursing practice?4 (p. 268). Scheffer and Rubenfeld5 expanded on the APA definition for nurses through a consensus process, resulting in the following definition:
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