Question

Critical Thinking Activities

Read each clinical scenario and discuss the questions with your classmates.

Scenario A

As a student, you have several tasks to complete. There is an Anatomy and Physiology test in 4 days. You just collected the library materials you need for a comprehensive paper due in 1 week. A 50-page reading assignment needs to be completed for a lecture the day after tomorrow.

1. How would you organize to accomplish these tasks?

2. In what order of priority would you place each of these tasks? Explain why you placed each task in the order chosen.

Scenario B

Your clinical area does not have sphygmomanometers (blood pressure cuffs) on the wall by each patient; portable ones are used. You need to take 8 am vital signs (temperature, pulse, respiration rate, and blood pressure) quickly, and there is no portable unit available right now. How would you solve this problem?

Scenario C

Your clinical assignment is for:

M.H., age 72; diagnosis: pneumonia

F.S., age 52; diagnosis: leg ulcer

J.P., age 78; diagnosis: abdominal hernia repair

1. It is 9:45 am. If J.P. needs to be ambulated three times a day, M.H. needs his antibiotic given at 10 am, and F.S. needs her dressing changed this morning, in what order would you do these tasks?

2. How did you make this decision?

Answer 1

Scenario 1 - I would simply keep the submission timeline before my eyes to organize and accomplish these tasks. A 50-page reading assignment is a big task and needs at least two days to be completed. Additionally, the task needs to be completed for a lecture the day after tomorrow. So I would simply start with this assignment and complete it today and tomorrow so that I can show it in the lecture the day after tomorrow. Now, the second task would be to prepare for the Anatomy and Physiology test which is going to take place in 4 days which means I would have only two days to prepare for it since I have already utilized my first two days for the reading assignments. After the test is over, I think I would have sufficient time to complete my comprehensive paper for which I have collected the library materials. I have placed each task in this order by keeping in mind the date of submission simply. The thing that needs to be submitted first must be completed first.

Scenario B - Apart from portable sphygmomanometers, there are also other methods to measure blood pressure like finger and/or wrist blood pressure devices and electronic blood pressure monitoring devices. The nurse can simply use one of these devices to check the vital signs. Just in case if none of the devices is present, then the nurse can use the stethoscope to check out the presence of irregular heartbeat as well as nerve rhythm at 8 am. Then as soon as she finds free portable sphygmomanometers, she can check on the values later.

Scenario C - We know that it is 9:45 which means we have 15 minutes before we are supposed to give an antibiotic to M.H who is 72 years old and has pneumonia. It is very important to give them the antibiotic on time. However, we can utilize these 15 minutes to ambulate 78 years old J.P. with abdominal hernia repair which is very important. Once both things are done, we can take our time to change the dressing of F.S which is comparatively less urgent than the other two.