Assignment Brief:

Ql. Critical thinking skills are essential to nursing practice. Critical thinking should be used at all stages of the nursing process and should improve patient outcomes.

Considering this statement:

a. Describe the characteristics of a critical thinker.

b. Critically discuss how you as a nurse can use critical thinking to improve your clinical decision making and improve patient outcomes. Use evidence to support your discussion.

Q2. Accurate clinical decision making should reduce clinical risk. Critically discuss this statement in relation to your clinical practice area by using an example from your practice. Use evidence to support your discussion.

Q3. Accuracy in clinical decision making is essential to quality patient care. Critically discuss how you can improve the quality of care you provide for your patient group through more accurate clinical decision making. Use evidence to support your discussion.

Q4. Clinical decision making involves both intuitive and analytical processes. Critically discuss the different processes and identify how they influence clinical decision making in practice. You can use clinical examples to illustrate your discussion. Use evidence to support your discussion.

Q5. Critically reflect on how you have developed your clinical decision-making skills as a result of your recent learning. (You do not have to use a model of reflection).

Please illustrate your answer by choosing from one of the following options:

• Risk management
• Clinical governance
• Quality improvement.