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.

Successful Intelligence depends on 3 thinking skills:

practical

analytical
THINKING
THINKING
SKILLS
SKILLS

creative

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

Take in information

Ask questions

Use information

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
Its 3 am in the hospital and Ms. Avon, the nurse,
sees a patients 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. Im fine.
The nurse observes that there are wads of used
tissues on the floor; the sheets are all twisted; Mr.
Trents 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 cant 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 doesnt 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

Blooms taxonomy

Knowledge 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

1. Information
Received

2.Critical thinkers use

information
by applying,
analyzing, synthesizing,
or evaluating it.

Creative thinkers are problem

solvers who broadened their thinking
by becoming aware of more
possibilities

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

4.Creative thinkers solve

problems by coming
up with new and different
solutions.

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 dont keep
repeating the same mistake