CRITICAL THINKING CLINICAL REASONING REVIEW
CORRECT QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔A client with diarrhea also has a primary care provider's order for a bulk laxative
daily. The nurse, not realizing that bulk laxatives can help solidify certain types of
diarrhea, concludes, "The primary care provider does not know the client has diarrhea."
What type of statement is this?
1. A fact
2. An inference
3. A judgment
4. An opinion - ✔✔2. An inference
Rationale: The nurse has inferred and concluded something that is beyond the available
information (and in this case may not be accurate). The prescription and the diarrhea
are facts (option 1). It would be judgment and opinion if the nurse stated that the
laxative would make the diarrhea worse and should not be given (options 3 and 4).
(Note: Critical thinking will cause this nurse to examine the assumptions made and
gather more data before acting.)
✔✔Reflection (components of clinical reasoning) - ✔✔Nurse identifies factors that
improved client care and those that required changing or elimination
✔✔Learning how to act (components of clinical reasoning) - ✔✔1) How and when to
respond in a clinical situation
2) Thinking about potential complications given the client's current problems
✔✔Setting Priorities (components of clinical reasoning) - ✔✔1) Needs to be dynamic,
flexible
2) Difficult for beginning nursing students to determine which data are most relevant
(Preclinical preparation)
3) Priorities may change based on current client situation.
✔✔creativity - ✔✔thinking that results in the development of ne ideas and products
, ✔✔Intellectual Courage to Challenge the Status Quo and Rituals (Attitudes that Foster
Critical Thinking) - ✔✔when a nurse is willing to consider and examine fairly his or her
own ideas or views, especially those to which the nurse may have a strongly negative
reaction
✔✔concept map - ✔✔graphic representation of linear and nonlinear relationships for
representing critical thinking
✔✔The nurse is teaching a client about wound care during a followup visit in the client's
home. Which critical thinking attitude causes the nurse to reconsider the plan and
supports evidence-based practice when the client states, "I just don't know how I can
afford these dressings"?
1. Integrity
2. Intellectual humility
3. Confidence
4. Independence - ✔✔1. Integrity
Rationale: By reconsidering the type of dressing used based on research, the nurse is
using integrity. Options 2 and 3 are critical thinking attitudes characterized by an
awareness of the limits of one's own knowledge, and being trustworthy. Option 4
indicates an attitude of not being easily swayed by the opinions of others.
✔✔Clinical reasoning-in-transition (components of clinical reasoning) - ✔✔Ability to
recognize subtle changes in client's condition over time
✔✔Techniques in Critical Thinking - Socratic questioning - ✔✔is a technique one can
use to look beneath the surface, recognize and examine assumptions, search for
inconsistencies, examine multiple points of view, and differentiate what one knows from
what one merely believes.
✔✔Facts (Differentiating Types of Statements) - ✔✔can be verified through
investigation
✔✔Inferences (Differentiating Types of Statements) - ✔✔Conclusions drawn from the
facts; going beyond facts to make a statement about something not currently known
✔✔Integrity (Attitudes that Foster Critical Thinking) - ✔✔requires that individuals apply
the same rigorous standards of proof to their own knowledge and beliefs as they apply
to the knowledge and beliefs of others.
✔✔In the clinical reasoning process, the nurse sets and weighs the criteria, examines
alternatives, and performs which of the following before implementing a plan?
1. Reexamines the purpose for making the decision.
2. Consults the client and family members to determine their view of the criteria.
CORRECT QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔A client with diarrhea also has a primary care provider's order for a bulk laxative
daily. The nurse, not realizing that bulk laxatives can help solidify certain types of
diarrhea, concludes, "The primary care provider does not know the client has diarrhea."
What type of statement is this?
1. A fact
2. An inference
3. A judgment
4. An opinion - ✔✔2. An inference
Rationale: The nurse has inferred and concluded something that is beyond the available
information (and in this case may not be accurate). The prescription and the diarrhea
are facts (option 1). It would be judgment and opinion if the nurse stated that the
laxative would make the diarrhea worse and should not be given (options 3 and 4).
(Note: Critical thinking will cause this nurse to examine the assumptions made and
gather more data before acting.)
✔✔Reflection (components of clinical reasoning) - ✔✔Nurse identifies factors that
improved client care and those that required changing or elimination
✔✔Learning how to act (components of clinical reasoning) - ✔✔1) How and when to
respond in a clinical situation
2) Thinking about potential complications given the client's current problems
✔✔Setting Priorities (components of clinical reasoning) - ✔✔1) Needs to be dynamic,
flexible
2) Difficult for beginning nursing students to determine which data are most relevant
(Preclinical preparation)
3) Priorities may change based on current client situation.
✔✔creativity - ✔✔thinking that results in the development of ne ideas and products
, ✔✔Intellectual Courage to Challenge the Status Quo and Rituals (Attitudes that Foster
Critical Thinking) - ✔✔when a nurse is willing to consider and examine fairly his or her
own ideas or views, especially those to which the nurse may have a strongly negative
reaction
✔✔concept map - ✔✔graphic representation of linear and nonlinear relationships for
representing critical thinking
✔✔The nurse is teaching a client about wound care during a followup visit in the client's
home. Which critical thinking attitude causes the nurse to reconsider the plan and
supports evidence-based practice when the client states, "I just don't know how I can
afford these dressings"?
1. Integrity
2. Intellectual humility
3. Confidence
4. Independence - ✔✔1. Integrity
Rationale: By reconsidering the type of dressing used based on research, the nurse is
using integrity. Options 2 and 3 are critical thinking attitudes characterized by an
awareness of the limits of one's own knowledge, and being trustworthy. Option 4
indicates an attitude of not being easily swayed by the opinions of others.
✔✔Clinical reasoning-in-transition (components of clinical reasoning) - ✔✔Ability to
recognize subtle changes in client's condition over time
✔✔Techniques in Critical Thinking - Socratic questioning - ✔✔is a technique one can
use to look beneath the surface, recognize and examine assumptions, search for
inconsistencies, examine multiple points of view, and differentiate what one knows from
what one merely believes.
✔✔Facts (Differentiating Types of Statements) - ✔✔can be verified through
investigation
✔✔Inferences (Differentiating Types of Statements) - ✔✔Conclusions drawn from the
facts; going beyond facts to make a statement about something not currently known
✔✔Integrity (Attitudes that Foster Critical Thinking) - ✔✔requires that individuals apply
the same rigorous standards of proof to their own knowledge and beliefs as they apply
to the knowledge and beliefs of others.
✔✔In the clinical reasoning process, the nurse sets and weighs the criteria, examines
alternatives, and performs which of the following before implementing a plan?
1. Reexamines the purpose for making the decision.
2. Consults the client and family members to determine their view of the criteria.
