Critical Thinking Discussion

NURS 490: Nursing Leadership

 

Purpose of Assignment

Your goal with this activity is to apply critical thinking skills to identify problems in your workplace (or community if no workplace) and describe the gap between what is expected and the existing conditions. 

​

Student Approach to Assignment

This discussion post was unique to me because I incorporated a specific, real example of my clinical practice into the discussion. After analyzing an article regarding critical thinking, I demonstrated a way to apply critical thinking into a regular shift via time management and prioritization. I was reminded and encouraged through this post to utilize my critical thinking skills in this way every day on the job.

​

Reason for Inclusion of this Assignment in the Portfolio 

As critical thinking is vital to the nursing practice, this discussion post was important to include in my portfolio to demonstrate how I have grown in my application of the skill into practice. It exemplifies my strength of time management and prioritization.

 

Domain 6: Interprofessional Partnerships 

(31) Articulates the values of the profession and the role of the nurse as a member of the interdisciplinary health care team.

In this discussion post, I analyze the importance of critical thinking in a nurse’s role within the health care team. I use a specific example from an actual shift where I experienced interdisciplinary communication and teamwork in this post: during my prioritization with a heavy workload, I was able to critically think through the need for certain interventions (insertion of a peripheral IV and continuation of a diltiazem drip), communicate my thought process to the doctor, and ultimately achieved the wanted patient outcomes, while allowing my own time to be used for a higher priority task through this use of critical thinking.

​

Domain 6: Interprofessional Partnerships

 (32) Adhere to the registered nurse scope and standard of practice.

The writing prompt in this post encouraged me to recount how I use critical thinking in my work, leading me to cite two prime examples of critical thinking, time management and prioritization. I discuss how I have learned to prioritize the most pressing patients or tasks in my shift first, and how I learn to be flexible with my schedule if needed. I believe this adheres to the scope and standard of practice, as critical thinking is an essential part to the entire nursing process. Critical thinking by using time management skills such as this especially displays my proficiency in the assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation stages.

​

Download a Word document of my Intro Page here.

View my Critical Thinking Discussion post here:

​

​