Critical Nursing I Recently Witnessed Term Paper

I also assumed that the nurse I was observing would likely support the doctor and try to talk the patient into changing her mind. My assumptions were incorrect. Later I took the time to reflect upon my reaction to the situation.

After thinking through the entire situation, it is my belief that she did make the right choice, she no longer wished to live a life tied to a machine, wheeled about in a chair and unable to enjoy even the smallest of pleasures. As a nurse, my approach would be to comfort the patient, understanding and giving support to the family and friends who are attempting to support the patient. The patient is experiencing enough trauma, and should be fully supported in making whatever decision is best for that particular individual.

Other nurses might disagree. One study determined that even though 80% of newly graduated nurses have developed a higher level of crtical thinking skills, "a statistically significant higher proportion of nurses with high critical thinking scores were found among those older than 30 years" (Wangensteen, Johannson, Bjorkstrom, Nordstrom, 2010, p. 2171).So even though new nurses have developed some critical thinkng skills, the older nurses have continued to develop theirs and have complemented their skills with experience. Each patient is going to make a decision based on specific circumstances and whereas some older or more experienced nurses will understand the difficulty in making this type of decision, newer nurses may not.

Teaching someone about this type of scenario might actually be best accomplished by the mentor method. Placing a new nurse with a more experienced individual will allow the inexperienced person to watch, observe, take-in and (hopefully) retain events such as these and they may just learn enough to respond in an appropriate manner when they too are faced with such cirucmstances.

References

Drennan, J.; (2010) Critical thinking as an outcome of a Master's degree in nursing programme, Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol. 66, Issue 2, pp. 422 -- 431

Wangensteen, S.; Johannson, I.S.; Bjorkstrom, M.E.; Nordstrom, G.; (2010) Critical thinking dispositions among….....