Critical thinking refers to the individual’s ability to form conclusions from an available combination of facts, observations, and evidence. Critical thinking presents an essential component of decision-making, which is common in patient care. On the other hand, evidence based practice is a tool used in nursing to ensure the quality of care. The practice includes analyzing scientific evidence to improve the decision-making process in patient care and acquiring the best patient outcomes.
Critical thinking skills are necessary for maintaining the quality of care in nursing. Firstly, critical thinking allows the construction of a more comprehensive basis for decision-making, leading to improved patient outcomes. Next, critical thinking in nursing practice entails strong professional ethics and encourages nurses to maintain a high quality of care. In addition, according to Falcó-Pegueroles et al. (2021), critical thinking presents an essential component of excellent nursing care, which allows for a more effective evidence research process. Therefore, critical thinking in nursing is important because it improves the evidence research basis for decision-making. Furthermore, according to Skaggs et al. (2018), besides acquiring the best patient outcomes, implementing EBP strategies sufficiently improves the patients’ experience. The authors determined that the implementation of EBP communication in emergency department strategies resulted in improvements in patients’ safety and quality of care ratings (Skaggs et al., 2018). Thus, critical thinking and evidence-based practice improve patients’ outcomes and maintain high-quality care standards.
In conclusion, this essay defines how critical thinking skills influence the quality of care and patients outcomes. Critical thinking presents a significant foundation for evidence based practice and decision-making in nursing, prioritizing achieving the best outcomes for patients. Critical thinking also entails strong professional ethics in nursing professionals. The combination of critical thinking skills and evidence based practice strategies plays a significant role in maintaining high levels of patients’ satisfaction with care.
References
Falcó-Pegueroles, A., Rodríguez-Martín, D., Ramos-Pozón, S., & Zuriguel-Pérez, E. (2021). Critical thinking in nursing clinical practice, education and research: From attitudes to virtue. Nursing Philosophy: An international Journal for Healthcare Professionals, 22(1), 1-7.
Skaggs, M., Daniels, J. F., Hodge, A. J., & DeCamp, V. L. (2018). Using the evidence-based practice service nursing bundle to increase patient satisfaction. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 44(1), 37–45. Web.