Critical thinking is one of the qualities that every human being should have because it substantially helps in making logical and rational decisions. Nursing process does not only require a person to have the nurturing ability, but also the ability to think critically. Therefore, this paper summarizes and compares and contrasts articles discussing critical thinking in nursing. It also discusses how the information from the articles can be utilized and applied in various aspects of critical thinking (Papathanasiou et. al ., 2014) .
Summary of Article 1
The first article titled “Critical Thinking: The Development of an Essential Skill for Nursing Students” was written by Papathanasiou et al . in 2014 and it mainly explains how nursing students can develop critical thinking skills. Critical thinking plays important role in nursing because it is one of the most important techniques that are used by nursing to solve problems and engage in decision-making process. It is the process that enables nurses to engage in safe, skillful, and efficient nursing interventions. Scriven and Paul define critical thinking as the mental active process as well as subtle perception, analysis, synthesis, and assessment of the information that has been gathered through observation, experience or reasoning that can lead to a conviction of a behavior or action (Papathanasiou et al ., 2014). Therefore, nurses need critical thinking skills in order to be able to conduct meaningful assessment of available information and arrive at local and rational decision during nursing interventions. The skills enable nurses to finds solutions to some of the specific problems they face in their line of duty.
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The article has discussed a number of critical thinking skills that individuals, especially nurses should possess. The critical thinking skills that have been discussed in the article include critical analysis, valid conclusion, clarification of concepts, recognition of conditions, and differentiating facts and opinions. It is important to critically analyze the situations, events, and information and only use the relevant ones in solving a problem or addressing an issue. Nurses should be able to differentiate what they know and what they believe during the nursing intervention (Papathanasiou et al ., 2014). In addition, individuals should use critical thinking to arrive at conclusive justifications. Decisions should not be made out of general information. Besides, nurses should be able to differentiate facts from fiction, including personal judgment and opinions. They should confirm the accuracy of the information that they receive or use in the nursing intervention. Nurses should also believe that life is invaluable regardless of patient’s condition.
A person using critical thinking should embrace some behaviors. There are some behaviors that enhance critical thinking. Therefore, some of the critical thinking enhancement behaviors include independence of thought, integrity, spiritual courage, and perseverance (Papathanasiou et al ., 2014). Other behaviors include humble intellect, self-confidence, interest in research, and insight into the public and personal level. It emphasizes that nurses should possess these behaviors in order for them to engage in critical thinking. Nurses need to consider a number of factors when they are implementing critical thinking in nursing practice. In many cases, nurses can act effectively without using critical thinking because a number of decisions that they make based on habits and common practices. However, they need to apply critical thinking when they come across new ideas or situation that is beyond routine. As a result, it is important for nurses to solve problems based on scientific evidence and they should not rely much on their intuition when making decisions. They should involve critical thinking in almost all their decision-making process. Critical thinking plays important role in ensuring safe, efficient, and skillful nursing practice.
Summary of Article 2
The second article was written by Shoulders, Follett, and Eason in 2014 and it is titled “Enhancing Critical Thinking in Clinical Practice.” The primary objective of the article is comprehensively discuss the concept of critical thinking and come up with strategies that nurses can use to enhance their critical thinking, especially in clinical practice. According to the authors, there are a number of definitions of critical thinking. Based on the Delphi Report, is a well-informed and trustful reasoning that is diligently being used to achieve a given outcome. However, the definition has been disputed for not being nursing specific (Shoulders & Eason, 2014). Scheffer and Rubenfeld later gave the definition of critical thinking that is nursing-oriented. They argue that critical thinkers possess unique characteristics of mind that include flexibility, creativity, intellectual integrity, open-mindedness, reflection, and perseverance. Other characteristics that define a critical thinker are context perspective, inquisitiveness, and intuition. At the same time, critical thinkers in nursing have cognitive skills of analyzing, logical reasoning, information seeking, application of standards, and predicting and transforming knowledge.
Nurses who respond critically are able to respond to changing conditions of a patient, prioritizes care based on the urgency of the situation, are able to accurately interpret data, and they are able to use the findings to offer quality care (Shoulders & Eason, 2014). Critical thinking can help a nurse to use bigger picture to solve health problems facing patients. However, a nurse who lacks critical thinking skills focuses on structure and protocols in making clinical decisions. In order to integrate evidence-based practice and critical thinking, it is important for nurse leaders to create a working environment that encourage transformation from outdated practices and traditions. Many nurses are not able to integrate evidence-based practices and critical thinking because they lack autonomy while at the same time they cannot interpret and apply research findings. In addition, critical thinking can be encouraged among nurses when the nursing process is effectively utilized for its intended objective or purpose.
Nurses mainly learn their critical thinking skills in their academic environment, especially through assessments that are designed to measure critical thinking (Shoulders & Eason, 2014). At the same time, nurses are able to gain their critical thinking skills as they acquire clinical expertise when they are changing from novice to experts. Preceptors play important role in the transformation of nurses from novice to professional experts in the field. Some of the main dispositions that a nurse should have to be a critical thinker includes open and fair-mindedness, reflectiveness, and counterfactual thinking. In order to enhance critical thinking ability, it is important to first identify the learning needs of nurses. Besides, nurses should be exposed to simulation technology during their nursing training and practice. Individual nurses can also enhance their critical thinking skills by developing questioning attitudes and habits. In addition, interactive case studies can be used to enhance critical thinking among nurses.
Comparing and Contrasting the Articles
There are a lot of similarities between the two articles summarized above and the first article titled “ Developing a Nursing IQ - Part 1Characteristics of Critical Thinking: What Critical Thinkers Do, What Critical Thinkers Do Not Do” as they all focus on critical thinking, especially among nurses. They define critical thinking, common characteristics of critical thinking, cognitive skills of critical thinkers, and how a person can learn to be a critical thinker. Despite showing a lot of similarities, three articles also have some difference with regard to the definition of critical thinking, how they are structured, and the concepts and topics discussed by the authors. Therefore, the three articles have similarities and differences.
The three articles have a lot of similarities when it comes to what constitute critical thinking or characteristics of critical thinkers. They all agree that the main characteristics of critical thinking include independence of thought, humble intelligence, perseverance, confidence, and impartiality. Other characteristics that they agree on include logical thinking, open-mindedness, and information seeking. Nevertheless, the article provided is more comprehensive and detailed in discussing characteristics of a critical thinker. It provides in-depth discussion and information under the sub-title “Essential Intellectual Traits” to discuss critical thinking traits. It elaborately discussed traits like intellectual humility, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual autonomy, and intellectual integrity. At the same time, unlike the two summarized articles, it effectively and precisely connects characteristics of critical thinking to nursing or nurses. Even though the two articles also linked critical thinking to nursing, they are now as elaborative as the provided article in doing so. Hence, the provided article has provided more useful information with regard to traits of critical thinkers in comparison to the two summarized articles. But they all have almost similar characteristics of critical thinkers.
One of the obvious differences that have emerged between the summarized articles and the provided article is that they have different definitions of what critical thinking. The provided article has a brief and summarized definition of critical thinking. It simply defines critical thinking as the art of analyzing and assessing thinking with the aim of improving it. It is the simplest definition of critical thinking when it compared to the two articles. The first article by Papathanasiou et al ., on the other hand, uses Scriven and Paul definition of critical thinking and it includes a number of terms constitute critical thinking ( Papathanasiou et al ., 2014). Follett and Eason also give elaborate definition of critical thinking. Unlike the provided article and the first summarized article, Follett and Eason give two main definitions of critical thinking, one that relates to nursing and another that is general. Generally, the two articles give broader definition of critical thinking than the provided article. It can be argued, therefore, that the two summarized articles have stronger definition of critical thinking that the article provided.
Although the two articles have given elaborate definition of critical thinking, the provided article is better in explaining the concept of critical thinking. Apart from explaining characteristics critical thinking, it clearly discusses the universal intellectual standards that are required of a critical thinker, which is not the case in the two articles. According to the provided article, some of the universal intellectual standards that critical thinkers should have include clarity, accuracy, precision, depth, and breath. At the same time, it has discussed some of the cognitive skills that critical thinkers should have. Some of the cognitive skills discussed include divergent thinking, reasoning, reflection, clarification, and creativity. However, the second article by Follett and Eason has also briefly discussed cognitive skills required in critical thinking. The provided article and article by Follett and Eason share some similarities when it comes to cognitive skills required in critical thinking. Cognitive skills that are discussed by the two articles include reasoning, reflection, and creativity. Nevertheless, the first article by Papathanasiou et al . does not discuss cognitive skills required in critical thinking.
In addition, the provided article has discussed main characteristics that prevent critical thinking, especially among nurses and other health professionals. According to the article, characteristics that prevent critical thinking include egocentrism fallacy, omniscience fallacy, omnipotence fallacy, invulnerability fallacy, and the halo effect. In the contrary, none of the two articles has discussed factors hindering critical thinking.
Therefore, based on the similarities and differences, it can be concluded that all the three articles focused on critical thinking, especially among nurses. They have all discusses the concept of critical thinking and linked it to nursing. However, the provided article is more elaborative and comprehensive in discussing the concept that the two articles discussed above. Hence, a person can better understand the concept of critical thinking when using the provided article than the two articles summarized in this paper.
How the Information in the Articles is Utilized and Applicable to Nursing Care
The information in the article can be utilized and applied in various areas of nursing care, as they are relevant in the healthcare sector. Some of the nursing care areas where the information can be utilized and applied include patient-centered care, the nursing process, and critical thinking in nursing.
Patient-Centered Care
Patient-centered care is where a nurse or physician is determined to improve patient clinical outcome as well as the satisfaction rate by focusing on the quality of his or her relationship with the patient. It is aimed at reducing diagnostic tests, prescription, referrals, and hospitalization. Patient-centered care is used to enhance physician-patient relationship through the utilization of measurable skills and behaviors (Papathanasiou et. al ., 2014) .
Therefore, the information from the article can be utilized and applied in the patient-centered care. In order to enhance the quality of patient-physician relationship and interaction, a nurse must be able to understand and accurately interpret the physical and emotional needs of patients. At the same time, a nurse must be able to use evidence-based care to reduce prescription, diagnostic tests, and hospitalization. However, this is only possible when a nurse is a critical thinker. Hence, the articles provide useful information about critical thinking that a nurse offering patient-centered care can used to create quality interaction with patients. The information in the article can make a nurse to learn critical thinking skills, which is useful in patient-centered care (Shoulders & Eason, 2014) .
The Nursing Process
Nursing process generally refers to the series of steps that are used by nurses to offer quality healthcare services to patients. The nursing process has five main steps that include assessing, diagnosing, planning, implementing, and evaluating. The nursing process is one of the universal intellectual standards to address and solve problems. Therefore, the nursing process is entirely a critical thinking process. As a result, nurses can use information contained in the articles to enhance the effectiveness of the nursing process. Specifically, they can utilize information about the universal intellectual standards that are explained in the article provided to find ways of improving the nursing process. The articles enable nurses to know and understand some of the traits they need in the nursing process (Shoulders & Eason, 2014).
Critical Thinking in Nursing
The articles provide useful information about critical thinking in nursing. Nurses can use the information to law some of the core characteristics that they need in order to be critical thinkers, especially when they are offering care to patients. At the same time, the articles provide information that can be used by nurses to learn critical learning skills that can be applied in the nursing field. In addition, nursing leaders can use information from the articles to create a favorable working environment that promote critical thinking among nurses. Therefore, the articles are beneficial to nurses (Papathanasiou et. al ., 2014).
Conclusion
Critical thinking plays important role in nursing and every nurse should be able to think critically. However, to enhance critical thinking among nurses, it is important to have in-depth understanding of the concept of critical thinking, especially its characteristics and factors that can hinder a person to think critically. The articles provide useful information about critically thinking that can be utilized by nurses.
References
Papathanasiou, I. V., Kleisiaris, C. F., Fradelos, E. C., Kakou, K., & Kourkouta, L. (2014). Critical thinking: the development of an essential skill for nursing students. Acta Informatica Medica , 22 (4), 283.
Shoulders, F, C., & Eason, J. (2014). Enhancing critical thinking in clinical practice: Implications for critical and acute care nurses. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing , 33 (4), 207-214.
