Nursing Clinical Judgment

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.

Clinical judgment is a crucial aspect of nursing practice, involving critical thinking and decision making. Models help to explain complex concepts, such as critical thinking in nursing.