e: Topic 2 DQ 1

Evidence-based practice is the combination of clinical expertise, patient values and their preferences and the most up-to-date research that is available (Dean, Chapter 3: Practice and Competency Development). Michael Scriven and Richard Paul describe critical thinking as “the mental active process and subtle perception, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of information collected or derived from observation, experience, reflection, reasoning or the communication leading to conviction for action” (Papathanasiou, Kleisiaris, Fradelos, Kakou, & Kourkouta, Critical thinking: The development of an essential skill for nursing students 2014). Critical thinking focuses on intuition, problem solving, knowing what information is and isn’t important, what to prioritize, and the advantages and disadvantages off all treatment options.

My personal opinion is that evidence-based practice is nothing without critical thinking. You really need to be able to think critically to be able to successfully perform evidence-based practice. You may walk into a patient or situation and think that they have one thing because that is what the first couple of major problems point to. However, if you think critically and dive deeper into all their problems, labs, medications, subjective and objective data you receive during your assessment you may quickly realize that there is a different problem. They may be presenting with something like hypoglycemia, but the real problem is something like a tumor on the pancreas, hormone deficiencies, dumping syndrome or anorexia.

As a nurse using critical thinking and evidence-based practice are very important. It allows us to treat each patient individually, take into count new and previous information, think outside the box when the current plan of care if not working, be flexible, assess the reliability of all of the data collected, both subjective and objective (Papathanasiou, Kleisiaris, Fradelos, Kakou, & Kourkouta, Critical thinking: The development of an essential skill for nursing students 2014). By using critical thinking and evidence-based practice we can provide a safe, effective and positive patient outcome.

References

Dean, J. K. (n.d.). Chapter 3: Practice and Competency Development. In Dynamics in Nursing: Art & Science of Professional Practice. Retrieved March 2, 2021, from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs430v/dynamics-in-nursing-art-and-science-of-professional-practice/v1.1/#/chapter/3

Papathanasiou, I., Kleisiaris, C., Fradelos, E., Kakou, K., & Kourk