Question

Distinguish among critical thinking, intuition, and reflection in practice. Is the experience necessary for new nurses to utilize intuition in their care? Or is a nursing practice based on science and factual knowledge alone? How is intuition related to complex decision-making in practice? Give a case example to demonstrate your perspective.

In each of your peer responses, address your peer's perspective, offering a substantial question, or furthering the debate on that peer’s post and a case example. Use a case example to support your perspective.

Answer 1

Critical thinking in health care is very important. It is a judgment done before taking any decision or action by critically analysis the facts and consequences of the problem or issue by the health care for the provision of appropriate action or care. For example, the nurse is analysis the symptom of abdominal pain and vomiting of the patient and what actions will be better to use base on the symptoms. Intuition is the ability to understand or knowing someone with any consious reasoning. In health care intuition, it is the unique connection, ability to understand the patient or describe the patient condition and diagnose the patient's condition without using logical information. For example, the nurse feel that the patient is not good to discharge after the doctor advice to discharge. Reflection in practice is the way of studying own experiences to imptove the way of work. This helps to increase confidence, self awareness, critical thinking skills and encourages active engagement in work processes.

It is necessary to have more experiences to nurses to utilize the intution in practice. The more experience in the practical field and handle many patients before leads to increase the knowledge and skills of the nurse. It will gives an idea of developing how to understand the respond of the patient and proper use of intution for the patient. For example, the senior nurse will understand better the condition of the patient by seeing his expression and respond. It is because the senior nurse has already handle many cases with same condition, she has an ideas of consequences that may occurs.

Intuition is related to complex decision making. Intuition leads the ability of nurses to understand the patients condition without reasoning but the ability to understand is occurs after taking complex analysis base on the patient needs, requirement. This leads to make complex decision by nurse that what she feel regarding the condition of the patient. For example, a patient admitted in the emergency room with head injury. The doctor told that he will be fine to shift to ward after giving some treatment. But by seeing the patient needs and condition, the nurse analyse and feel that the patient in not good to shift in the ward instead it should shift to ICU. After some half and hour shifting to ward, the patient condition became wrose start convulsion. This leads to shift the patient from ward to ICU. So in this situation the nurse is using intuition as well as complex decision making for the patient.