Nursing Clinical Judgment

Clinical Judgment in Nursing Practice

• Nurses must make accurate and appropriate clinical decisions or judgments, which is the observed outcome of critical thinking and decision making.
• Clinical decision making separates professional nurses from technicians or other assistive personnel (AP).

A Model for Clinical Judgment

• A model helps to explain the complex concept of critical thinking in nursing, which involves multiple variables when making decisions and clinical judgments about patients.

Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking is the ability to think in a systematic and logical manner, with openness to question and reflect on the reasoning process.
• The aim of critical thinking is to focus on the important issues in any clinical situation and make decisions that produce desired patient outcomes.

Critical Thinking Competencies

• General critical thinking competencies include the scientific method, problem solving, and decision making.
• Specific critical thinking competencies include diagnostic reasoning and clinical decision making.

Levels of Critical Thinking

• There are three levels of critical thinking: basic critical thinking, complex critical thinking, and commitment.

Components of Critical Thinking in the Clinical Judgment Model

• The components of critical thinking in the clinical judgment model include competence, knowledge base, experience, and environment.

Critical Thinking Attitudes

• Critical thinking attitudes include confidence, perseverance, thinking independently, fairness, responsibility and accountability, risk taking, discipline, creativity, curiosity, and humility and self-awareness.

Evaluation of Clinical Judgments

• Evaluation of clinical judgments involves reflection, meeting with colleagues, concept mapping, and critical thinking synthesis.

Learn about the importance of clinical judgment in nursing practice, critical thinking, and decision making. Understand how models explain the complex concept of clinical judgment.