What Is Critical Thinking In Nursing?

Are you super confused on what critical thinking means in nursing school? 

 

In this video, we’ll talk about what critical thinking is and how you can do it in nursing school. 

 

Here’s what we’ll talk about: 

 

1. Connecting the dots with everything you’re learning

2. Planning ahead

 

I’ll also give you tips on how to critically think in each of those 2 parts. 🙂

Make sure to snag your free critical thinking cheat sheet right here. 

What the heck does critical thinking mean? And are you doing it right in nursing school? We’ll answer those questions and more, in this video. But before we get started, make sure you’re subscribed to this channel so you don’t miss out on any tips to help you raise your grades and spend more time with your family during nursing school. Now, let’s do it!

 

So exactly what is critical thinking in nursing?! I know it’s the one big question on your mind right now, so let’s break it down. Really, there’s 2 parts to critical thinking in nursing, and those are: number 1: putting all of the puzzle pieces together and #2: planning ahead. Now let me explain what these mean, and I’ll give you some tips for them as well. And as you’re watching this video, leave a comment below and tell me which critical thinking tip speaks to you the most, and which one you’re excited to try first. 

 

Putting all the pieces together means that when you’re at your nursing school clinicals, or you’re writing a care plan, or a paper on your patient, you understand the disease processes, disorders, or health issues that your patient is facing, and you are able to tie them together, and connect the dots with things like: what you’ll need to assess for, the interventions that should be done to help them, the medications you’ll need to give, and the patient education you’ll need to do. So critical thinking in nursing goes beyond just learning about heart failure, COPD, stroke, and all of those other med surg disorders. You’ll need to understand all of that stuff, sure, but critical thinking in nursing takes it one step further. You need to apply all of that knowledge to your patient, and figure out how that disorder relates to the other health issues they have, decide what you need to assess for, or figure out what interventions should and shouldn’t be done. 

 

Now, if you want a deep dive into some critical thinking points to help you study or while you’re at clinical, to help you critically think through these things, then you’ll definitely want to check out the video we’ve got for you on how to critically think.

 

So let’s walk through an example of this. Let’s say you have a patient who is overweight, has diabetes, and hypertension. Now all 3 of those health issues go hand in hand. So let’s say this patient tells you, “I’ll take my diabetic medications as prescribed, and I’ll be all better.” Is that really going to help solve all 3 problems? NO! So you need to be able to critically think through the pathophysiology of each of those disorders, and connect the dots, so you’ll know what to do and what to say. In this case, sure an antidiabetic medication can help reduce blood sugar, but a healthy diet and exercise should also be added to help reduce weight and reduce blood pressure, and possibly an antihypertensive medication treatment as well. So that’s the first key to critical thinking in nursing: putting all of the puzzle pieces together and connecting the dots. 

 

Now here’s my tip for you here: concept maps. When you can write all of these critical thinking pieces out visually, it will really help you to connect the dots. So to do a concept map, you’ll put the main issue in the middle, and then have all of the related pieces connected to it. And then you’ll do the same for the next disorder, and the next, and it’s just a really great way of putting all of those puzzle pieces together. So I definitely recommend trying this critical thinking tip out the next time you study. 

 

Now the second part of critical thinking in nursing school is the ability to plan ahead. How often do you get into a patient’s room and you realize you don’t have everything you need, or you forgot the saline flush, or you’ve got the injection all ready to go but you forgot your alcohol swab. That’s the second part of this: planning ahead so you don’t get tripped up later, and have to backtrack what you’re doing. So make sure that before you do ANYTHING, take a minute, think through what you’re about to do, and walk through it, and make sure you have your game plan down. 

 

Now here’s my tip for this: make a list of the most common things you do at clinical. Things like assessing your patient, giving medications, doing wound care, things like that. Make a list of the most common things you do at clinical and then, for each of them, write out what you’ll need for each one. So for example, for assessing a patient, you’ll definitely need your watch, a stethoscope, pen light and gloves. So all of those things should be included under assessment. So it will look like this, you’ll have all of the different things you do at clinical listed here (and this will vary depending on your clinical site), and then under each category, you’ll make a list of everything you need to bring into the room with you. This will REALLY help you plan ahead and prepare for the unexpected, which is a huge part of critical thinking. And of course, eventually, the more you do this the better you’ll get, and the more you’ll just be able to critically think through everything you need to do, and you’ll automatically know what to do to prepare. You’ll be a rock star! 

 

So leave a comment below and let me know which critical thinking tip you’re most excited to try to take your critical thinking skills to the next level. 

 

And if you loved this video, hit that like button, share it with your nursing school bestie, and make sure to subscribe and hit the bell so you don’t miss out on any other nursing school tips to help you raise your grades and have more free time to spend with your family during nursing school. 

 

Now go become the nurse that God created only you to be, and I’ll catch you in the next video.