Nursing Clinical Judgment Models

Clinical Judgment in Nursing Practice

• Clinical judgment is the observed outcome of critical thinking and decision making, and is a crucial aspect of nursing practice.
• Accurate and appropriate clinical decisions or judgments are essential for nurses to make.
• Clinical decision making separates professional nurses from technicians or other assistive personnel.

Models of Clinical Judgment

• Models help to explain complex concepts, such as critical thinking in nursing.
• A model can explain the many variables involved in 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, complex, and commitment.

Components of Critical Thinking

• 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, independent thinking, creativity, curiosity, fairness, responsibility, accountability, risk taking, discipline, and humility and self-awareness.

Evaluation of Clinical Judgments

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

Test your understanding of clinical judgment in nursing practice, including its importance and various models that explain complex concepts like critical thinking.