Critical Thinking Skills of New Graduate Nurse

Critical Thinking Skills for the New Graduate Nurse

Critical Thinking Skills for a New Graduate Nurse
Introduction
Nursing is an art and a science. The profession is an art of compassion and caring in a creative way. Creativity allows nurses to individualize nursing care. Through science, nurses obtain the skills and technology they rely on to achieve each patient 's optimal health ("Nursing", n.d.). Florence Nightingale became a nurse because she wanted to help those less fortunate. Her compassion and concern gave her the motivation she needed to help others. She strived to improve nursing and the lives of those she touched. To become a professional nurse requires that you learn to think like a nurse. Florence Nightingale thought like a nurse. What makes the thinking of a nurse different from a doctor, a dentist or an engineer? It is how they view the client and the type of problems they deal with in practice when they engage in patient care. To think like a nurse requires that nurses learn the content of nursing; the ideas, concepts and theories of nursing and develop their intellectual capacities and skills so that graduate and even the experienced nurse become disciplined, self-directed, critical thinkers.
Nurses are the backbone of our Health Care System today. Caring for the sick is only one of the various duties that nurses perform every day. Today, nurses work in areas of Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and they support patients and their families cope with illness and emergencies. Nursing is not just a job, it is a profession. A profession is any occupation in which you need specialized knowledge and training. It’s usually applied to occupations that involve a formal qualification, and Nursing happens to be one of those. Nursing combines a set of skills that include critical thinking, flexibility, creativity, communication and knowledge. With trends and requirements of nursing evolving so rapidly this essay will identify the importance of new graduate nurses being able to be critical thinkers and function in today’s rapidly growing multiple healthcare settings.
Graduation is an important milestone for nursing students, as it is the beginning of a new career after years of theory in the field of nursing. After graduation, graduate nurses experience a daunting task of first, passing boards, then finding a job or area of nursing they desire to start their nursing career in; but having such skills as critical thinking, flexibility, creativity, communication and knowledge will give the graduate nurse an advantage. What is known is the first few months of nursing can be the most challenging and stressful for new nursing graduates; the first year of practice is an importance confidence-building phase for nurses (Morrow, 2009).
Critical thinking (trying to achieve an optimal solution) is the ability to recognize problems and raise questions, gather evidence to support answers and solutions, evaluate alternative solutions, and communicate effectively with others to implement solutions for the best possible outcomes (Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2010).
It is believed that if nurses can critical think, they can become flexible, creative and communicate in ways that will advance the profession of nursing. However, as novice nurses, graduate nurses begin their first jobs after graduation and generally need help developing critical thinking skills. Faced with the demands of a dynamic and complex healthcare system, contemporary nursing practice needs effective thinkers and decision makers (Harjai & Tiwari, 2009). As a new graduate nurse, the goal should be to eliminate irrelevant, inconsistent and illogical thoughts as we reason about client care. Nurses use language to clearly communicate in-depth information that is significant to nursing care. Nurses are not focused on the trivial or irrelevant. Nurses who are critical thinkers hold all their views and reasoning to these standards as well as, the claims of others such that the quality of nurse 's thinking improves over time thus eliminating confusion and ambiguity in the presentation and understanding of thoughts and ideas. It is a skill that evolves over time and with experience.
Being a new graduate nurse, it is also important to be adaptable in order to be an effective critical thinker. Being adaptable enables nurses to adjust their role appropriately to each situation and each patient. Nurses will be exposed to different challenges and demands on a daily basis, and being adaptable will result in a positive outcome. Being adaptable could include dealing with unforeseen circumstances, all types of emergencies such as convulsions and body parts badly damaged. One must be a critical thinker. Also there will be patients out there that are very demanding so being able to adapt to those types of situations is highly important. One must again be a critical thinker. In essence, nurses must be capable of analyzing clinical data, medical and nursing knowledge, and environmental data, translating such analyses into life-saving interventions (Harjai & Tiwari, 2009).
As mention previously, creativity plays a role as well in being a critical thinker. Creativity is an essential component of nursing that occurs daily such as interactions with clients, families and other nurses. Failure to acknowledge and encourage creativity in nurses may hinder future development and innovations in health care. Creativity is an expression of our unique perspective to a situation or problem. Today’s health care institutions need creative and innovative solutions. Creative thinking is described as being intuitive, visual and discovering new ideas. Nurses take risks, think creatively, experiment and make changes. In today’s ever-changing health care involvement nursing students will be taught that it is important for nurses in general to be effective in problem solving. Problem solving is a set of activities designed to analyze a situation efficiently and generate, implement, and evaluate solutions. Effective problem-solving skills are a great attribute for a new graduate nurse to have in order to become a critical thinker. The quality of patient care is dependent on the ability of the graduate and experience nurse to incorporate problem solving skills effectively with decision making skills. This equates to the most important function nurses are taught in nursing school, patient safety. Patient safety can be directly affected by the critical thinking ability of a nurse. Nurses must have the ability to recognize changes in patient condition, perform independent nursing interventions, anticipate orders and prioritize. These actions require critical thinking ability, advanced problem-solving skills and the ability to communicate clearly (Fero, Witsberger, Wesmiler, Zullo, & Hoffman, 2008).
As a new graduate nurse, one should be motivated to gain as much knowledge and experience as they can. Nurses should never become satisfied or comfortable with their knowledge and level of experience. With trends emerging so rapidly in our health care system having sound knowledge is important to keep up with new treatment plans and new drugs that become available. The life of a patient may depend on it. Knowledge includes critical thinking skills, knowledge of understanding including empathy, and learning skills.
Additionally, critical thinking is a necessary pathway in improving the quality of patient care. The increasing complexity of modern health-care demands critical thinking skills with nurses. Critical thinking involves questioning all the aspects of a situation and analyzing solutions. Nurses are accountable for the quality of care provided to the patients. They must interpret data, explore avenues for solutions, propose alternative solutions to a problem and then make a concise decision that’s best for the patient. Poor thinking skills can be fatal to the patients care. It is important for all nurses to become skilled in their thinking and reasoning abilities to ensure the practice of sound judgment.
In summary, this topic was chosen because at the core of this highly regarded profession of Nursing, lies what is required in all areas or specialties of Nursing, critical thinking. Along with acquiring critical thinking skills, new graduate nurses are concentrating of making a major transition from student role to nurse role; and must fully understand what this entails. Transitions are passages or changes from one situation, condition, or state to another that occur over time (Zerwekh & Claborn, 1994). Graduating from nursing school happens to be major transitions. Nurses must literally think on their feet at all times as it may be a decision of life and death; and as a thriving potential graduate nurse, realize that one must come to realize the importance of critical thinking. Nurses’ are educators and who are responsible for explaining procedures and treatments. Sound knowledge is a requirement in nursing. Nurses must know the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat injuries and diseases. So having a sound knowledge ensures care for the patient is at its best. Nurses are constantly evolving in response to the vast changes in health care. They must continue to educate themselves and have the ability to acquire new skills to keep up with the demand of new trends emerging. As a new graduate nurse, the skills flexibility, creativity, communication and knowledge are all very important in a nurse’s profession. Understanding the transition experience from the perspective of the person who is experiencing it is important because the meaning of the experience may be positive, negative, or neutral (Zerwekh & Claborn, 1994). The role of a nurse will always be based on direct care giving but the health care system will continue to change and expand on its new-found technologies. These skills learned will benefit human life.
For me, living in an area with high poverty levels, I too wanted to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate. My first career choice was to become an Obstetrics/Gynecology physician. However, as life happened, these plans were altered. I then chose to become a nurse because of my desire to help others and become a positive role model in my community. My career choice gave me the opportunity to set high standards based on my morals, values and beliefs. From the beginning, I established my own personal commitment to nursing. My personal philosophy is to prepare myself to make a difference in my patient 's lives when he/she needs it most. I will provide compassionate, competent nursing care. I will work with those in my team to collaborate quality nursing care to ensure that each individual 's needs are met. I will be a patient advocate. I will be honest and nonjudgmental in the nursing care I provide. My patients will depend on me. I will strive to form a trusting nurse patient relationship. Setting aside my own opinions and ideas to listen to those of my patient is a priority. My responsibility is to make sure that each patient is aware of his/her rights. I will be held accountable for protecting the rights of those individuals. Providing consistent care regardless of race, sex, or ability to pay will always hold true. Ensuring that each of my patients will receive the upmost respect and high quality of care will be my top priority.
Knowing my scope of practice and working within my limitations will be my responsibility. I will be accountable for my own actions and decisions. I will also be accountable for those working under me to provide patient care. It is my responsibility to know the course of treatment and care my patients are receiving. Continuing my education through continuing education credits, in-services, and advancing my degree will give me the knowledge I need to be an effective critical thinker at all times during my career.
My ultimate goal is to provide high quality care for every patient. The care I provide will remain consistent and individualized regardless of social backgrounds. I will remember that every patient is a unique individual with basic needs. These basic needs must be met in order for us to maintain optimal health.

References
Fero, L. J., Witsberger, C. M., Wesmiller, S. W., Zullo, T. G. & Hoffman, L. A. (2008). Critical Thinking ability of a new graduate and experienced nurses, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65, 139-148.
Foundation for Critical Thinking (2010). “Defining Critical Thinking.” Accessed June 25, 2010, Schubert Bob, P. (2009). “Critical-Thinking Program for the Novice Nurse.” Journal for Nurses in Staff Development 25 (6): 292 - 298.
Kumar, P., & Tiwari, R., Model of Critical Diagnostic Reasoning: Achieving Expert Clinician Performance. Nursing Education Perspectives, 30 (5), 305-311.
Morrow, S. (2009). New graduate transitions: leaving the nest, joining the flight. Journal of Nursing Management, 17, 278-287.
Zerwekh, J., & Claorn, J. C. (1994). Nursing today: Transition and Trends (5th ed.) Saint Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier.

References: Fero, L. J., Witsberger, C. M., Wesmiller, S. W., Zullo, T. G. & Hoffman, L. A. (2008). Critical Thinking ability of a new graduate and experienced nurses, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65, 139-148. Foundation for Critical Thinking (2010). “Defining Critical Thinking.” Accessed June 25, 2010, Schubert Bob, P. (2009). “Critical-Thinking Program for the Novice Nurse.” Journal for Nurses in Staff Development 25 (6): 292 - 298. Kumar, P., & Tiwari, R., Model of Critical Diagnostic Reasoning: Achieving Expert Clinician Performance. Nursing Education Perspectives, 30 (5), 305-311. Morrow, S. (2009). New graduate transitions: leaving the nest, joining the flight. Journal of Nursing Management, 17, 278-287. Zerwekh, J., & Claorn, J. C. (1994). Nursing today: Transition and Trends (5th ed.) Saint Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier.