The concept of critical thinking comes from the combination of two words “critical” and “thinking”. Critical in turn comes from the root word “critique” which means to judge objectively a particular case while thinking comes from “think” which is a process of considering or reasoning about something. Critical thinking can therefore be said to be the process of considering something with the aim of judging it objectively. It is a concept that is active, evidence based, rational, self-directed, analytical and reasonable.
The employ of this philosophy in nursing education has gone a long way in producing better nurses. This has empowered the minds of the nursing students and prepared them towards problem solving. Nurses are trained to be independent professionals capable of making good decisions both in the academics and the clinical settings. Professional nurses will be in scenarios where they will be required to make a clinical evaluation and decision in limited time, without the benefit of …show more content…
He defines clinical judgement as “critical thinking in a clinical area”. Nurses must use critical thinking skills to rigorously investigate and reflect on all aspects of a clinical observation or problem in order to decide on an appropriate course of action. He asserts that critical thinking belongs in nursing because nursing is concerned with purposeful goal-directed thinking, with the primary aim of making judgements grounded on factual evidence rather than conjecture. Critical thinking helps a nurse to defend his decisions and actions in the face of evolving