Patricia Martin Giraldino
Florida National University
Decision Making
10/29/2024
Consider how clinical judgment, critical thinking, and decision-making are similar and different, and describe these in your own words.
Clinical reasoning, thinking, and decision-making are closely intertwined processes but are not completely synonymous in function and usage. Clinical judgment refers to the nurse’s ability to assess a patient’s condition, identify potential problems, and make decisions based on that assessment (Høegh-Larsen et al., 2023). It involves integrating medical knowledge, experience, and other specific information relating to the patient. Therefore, critical thinking is all about the application of rationality in analyzing information with the view of making a good decision. It is more general and relates not only to patient management but also to the management of different kinds of situations.
On the other hand, decision-making represents the last action in which the decision between different possibilities has to be made employing clinical reasoning. Clinical judgment focuses on decision-making in solving patient care problems. It can be distinguished from critical thinking, a broad concept of a thinking skill performed in any field, and decision-making, which is implementing a selected decision.
How do these processes differ from bedside nursing when compared to that of an advanced practice nurse? To illustrate this point, here is an example of how the bedside nurse uses decision-making and that of an advanced practice nurse.
In bedside nursing, clinical judgment, critical thinking, and decision-making processes are oriented toward acute patient care interventions or patient change states, such as taking temperatures, giving medication, or treating a patient’s change in location. Decisions are normally limited to the short term and, most of the time, depend on particular tasks. For example, a bedside nurse may perceive a patient’s heart rate to be rising and, understanding that the patient is clinically stable, proceed to call the physician.
For advanced practice nurses (APNs), these processes are even more elaborate and include higher orders of assessment and long-term planning. APNs equally decide on the diagnosis, therapy mechanisms, and control of demanding continual diseases (Bales et al., 2023). For instance, an APN, while attending to a diabetic patient, would independently evaluate the rise or fall of the blood sugar level, solve a problem of whether to increase/decrease insulin doses or change the entire regimen for the patient by making a decision based on the critical thought process and considering elements such as diet, activity, and side effects of the medicine.
After reading the information on emotional intelligence, how would you describe this to someone who has never heard of the term?
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the effectiveness of identifying feelings and moods, personally and in a given society, and then exerting control of such feelings. ASR means observing or monitoring the extent to which such feelings dictate your conduct and choices in social relations and using this information to control and navigate these relations (Coronado-Maldonado & Benítez-Márquez, 2023). For instance, a high level of emotional intelligence enables a qualified nurse to be cool-headed with a distressed patient and deal with the situation emotionally and logically.
Can you apply emotional intelligence to a situation in care as an advanced practice nurse in a clinic or hospital?
Yes, emotional intelligence is important to APNs in both clinics and hospitals throughout their point of enhanced practice. For instance, if an APN is working with a patient who has been recently diagnosed with cancer, the APN has to realize that apart from the medical side of things, there is the issue of having cancer and how this disease affects the patient and their family. The involvement of the APN would allow the use of individual and social-emotional intelligence to show the patient care and concern, address their concerns, and design appropriate care. Emotional intelligence enables the APN to gain the patient’s trust, enhance communication, and, finally, the quality of care to be offered.
References
Bales, G., Hasemann, W., Kressig, R. W., & Mayer, H. (2023). Impact, scope of practice and competencies of Advanced Practice Nurses within APN-led models of care for young and middle-aged adult patients with multimorbidity and/or complex chronic conditions in hospital settings: a scoping review protocol. BMJ Open, 13(10), e077335–e077335.
Coronado-Maldonado, I., & Benítez-Márquez, M. (2023). Emotional intelligence, leadership, and work teams: A hybrid literature review. Heliyon, 9(10), e20356.
Høegh-Larsen, A. M., Gonzalez, M. T., Reierson, I. Å., Sissel, Dag Hofoss, & Ravik, M. (2023). Nursing students’ clinical judgment skills in simulation and clinical placement: a comparison of student self-assessment and evaluator assessment. BMC Nursing, 22(1).
