Question

Critical Thinking in Nursing Practice

Medical treatment stabilized Mr. Lawson's condition. He had a pulmonary embolus, but he is now on anticoagulants, medications that will reduce likelihood of more clot formation. Knowing that Mr. Lawson is on anticoagulants and has had recent surgery and the processes of normal wound healing (see Chapter 48 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.), Tonya believes that the patient is at risk for bleeding from his surgical wound. She acts by increasing assessments of the wound and teaching Mr. Lawson how to avoid placing stress on the wound

1. Describe the critical thinking skill that Tonya is demonstrating.After Tonya assesses the wound, she enters a note in the medical record. She describes the appearance of the incision in detail, reports on the length of the incision, and notes that one suture is loose but there is no drainage.

2. Identify the three intellectual standards that Tonya uses in making a note in the record.

3. Mr. Lawson complains of more discomfort after lying on his right side for 30 minutes. Tonya asks him to describe the pain; it is focused more on his right shoulder and ribs. Tonya sees that the drainage tubing exiting the surgical wound is caught underneath the patient. She moves it, questions the patient further to find out that he has a history of arthritis in the shoulder, and then repositions and aligns him. This is an example of which critical thinking competencies?

Answer 1

1. Here, Tonya analyses patient's conditions ie intake of anticoagulants and recent surgery. She logically concluded that the patient Lawson is at increased risk for bleeding. Here she used anaylsing power and drawing a logical conclusion capacity.

2. While preparing nurse's notes, Tonya uses key intellectual standards such as logic, relevance and accuracy.

Tonya already suspected that Lawson is at high risk of bleeding, so it is very logical to assess the status of the wound. And it also relevant for the situation to assess the wound and suture site. The written information is accurate and clear.

3. In this case, she used information seeking skill. She asked the patient and found out the history of arthritis of shoulder by assessing his symptoms.