Critical Thinking Skills in Nursing - Essay Example

"Critical Thinking Skills in Nursing" is an engrossing example of a paper on care.
Thinking happens in a specific scheme of cognition, which shapes the manner in which people find information and process it, as well as their assumptions and the principles they apply to guide them in considering problems and solving them (Wangensteen et al, 2010). Since mental habits are influenced by historical and cultural circumstances, the strategies used in making decisions are reflective of one’s culture. However, these cognitive schemata do not necessarily have to be universal models that can be applied across every cultural and ethnic group.

The registered nurse’s critical thinking quality is influenced mostly by what is emphasized and reinforced by the hospital’s management (Chang et al, 2011). In addition, the absence or presence of two-way communication in different situations has a significant effect on the ability of a registered nurse to think critically. In addition, depending on the emphasis on clinical excellence in different situations, registered nurses heavily depend or rely on their more experienced counterparts in making clinical decisions through critical thinking. These more experienced practitioners tend to create a culture that emphasizes peer support and harmonious relationships in making decisions (Chang et al, 2011). This culture ensures that the best decisions in the clinical setting can be made even without defined practice standards or clinical guidelines.

A negative or positive relationship with physicians affects the quality of the registered nurse’s critical thinking ability, especially as it causes the registered nurse to discontinue thinking because they are either embarrassed or not heard (Hunter et al, 2013). For most foreign registered nurses, the condition of the patient, as well as their fellow registered nurses, has a profound influence on the critical thinking quality. However, just as with American nurses, the management culture in the hospital setting has a profound influence on their quality of critical thinking. Nursing leadership in the hospital facility also has an influence on the quality of critical thinking for the foreign nurses, especially with regards to how it focuses on improving patient outcomes and clinical setting excellence. The culture of the hospital nurtures two-way communication, tolerates disagreement, and allows for the questioning of the status quo, which has a profound influence on the foreign nurse’s ability to improve their critical thinking quality (Hunter et al, 2013). In addition, on-going learning as a culture of the hospital also influences the nurse’s quality of critical thinking.

With regards to the questions on environmental factors that influence thinkers, a foreign patient would have different answers to native nurses and patients (Fero et al, 2010). Most of them would answer the questions through the conceptual division of illnesses and treatments into unnatural and natural forms. For most of them, knowledge of how their body functions are important based on their concept of humoral pathology, where it is important to maintain a balance between all functions of the body. In addition, they will most likely be influenced by their knowledge of when their bodies are vulnerable, for example, age and weather, which are critical elements in making the body vulnerable. These factors have a profound influence on the patient’s critical thinking concerning their illness and healthcare. Decisions made by patients from different cultures may also be influenced by the patient’s conclusion that a physician or registered nurse is unable to properly diagnose their illness or that they are unable to care for them (Fero et al, 2010). For these reasons, the native culture of the patient will have a profound effect on how they answer the questions.