Reflection And Critical Thinking In The Healthcare Field

Reflection and Critical Thinking in the Healthcare Field
Ingram (2017) provides a description of a comprehensive health history interview and how the interviewer applied critical thinking and reflection to the experience. Critical thinking was applied through “capturing, analysing, and interpreting patient information” through the health history interview (p.1033, ¶ 1). The interviewer asked appropriate questions to gather a holistic health history and then was required to make a differential diagnosis. This process required critical thinking and decision making in order to make a conclusion, or in this case a diagnosis (Ingram, 2017). The interviewer categorized each section of the health history, connected ideas after the history taking process was complete, made inferences about these ideas, and then finally verified her diagnosis (Duncan, n.d.).
The interviewer reflected on the types of questions she asked during the interview such as open ended versus closed ended and noted use of jargon. Interview style was reflected upon in terms of active listening and in the method that the health history was obtained, in this case, head to toe. The interviewer reflected on her emotions and that of the interviewee; these are just to name a few topics that the interviewer reflected upon. One small interview allowed for infinite growth. Ultimately, the interviewer listed both strengths and opportunities for growth during the next health history interview; this allowed for learning and goals for future improvement (Ingram, 2017). Health histories are an integral part of the profession for health care practitioners, the example provided above did an excellent job of showing how both reflection and critical thinking can be applied to