In the health care profession, the skills, and abilities to think critically are an essential component of professional accountability and quality care. In order to manage the complexity of the work environment, and patient care issues, critical thinking will enable nurses think more effectively, and work through challenges to achieve the best possible results. There are many ways critical thinking can be used in nursing profession. Critical thinkers in nursing, demonstrate habits of the mind include flexibility, creativity, inquisitiveness, intellectual integrity, intuition, open-mindedness, perseverance, and reflection to manage complex matters in the health care arena (Rubenfeld, Scheffer, 2010). Nurses use creativity, one of the habits of mind in critical thinking to educate their patients.
Example of Creative Thinking in Patient Education
To provide safe care to the patients, nurses must utilize critical thinking abilities in the assessment of patient issues, the planning of care, and the implementation of care. Careful examination of all the aspects of patient care helps the nurse to reach a better outcome imparting education for the patient. When providing education or information to a patient, the nurses apply creative thinking, by using the counseling dialogues help the patient raise questions of why, how, and who. The nurses guide patients through identifying, and exploring the problem, consider the patient’s choices, choose a plan of action, and evaluate the results (Ranklin, 2005). For example, reducing falls in the inpatient unit. Fall risk assessment is a key safety issue in many inpatients. Identifying the risk for fall on patient admission, and implementing measures and reevaluate the patient is essential to prevent falls on the unit. Moreover educating the patient and families is a necessary step in preventing patient falls.
Evaluation of an Example of Creative Thinking
The presented example is a way of