Need a perfect paper? Place your first order and save 5% with this code:   SAVE5NOW

Critical Thinking Case Study

Introduction

The concept map of Benner’s stages, including how they relate to the nursing care plan, is created as part of the case study’s preparations. The case study is a condensed version of the full description of the idea map, which includes how it fits in with clinical decision-making and critical thinking decision-making to yield a better nursing care plan. The paper also breaks down the continuum’s stages and describes where both nursing students and Sue lie on the spectrum.

Concept Map

Newly-graduated nurses lack the critical thinking abilities necessary to address patients’ conditions. One of the successful ways for developing clinical judgment and critical decision-making skills is concept mapping (Abd El-Hay et al., 2018).

Benner’s clinical competency levels

Summary

Nurses must be alert to new symptoms and serious emergencies in their patients. Poor patient outcomes are a direct result of the inexperienced nursing staff’s inability to think critically and make sound clinical decisions. The improvement of patient care management and patient outcomes is hoped to result from challenging hospital nursing educators to plan and provide instruction to support the development of greater critical thinking skills. Benner identified five stages in the evolution of nurses’ capacity for critical thinking, including “novice,” “advanced beginner,” “competent,” and “proficient.” In each of these steps, critical thinking in nursing takes on a slightly different form.

Stages of the continuum and characteristics of each stage

According to the nursing profession’s guiding idea, nurses need to learn from their patients and their own lives in order to provide optimal care. Dr. Benner’s theory is concerned with how nurses learn; it is possible to acquire nursing expertise without formally studying theory (Elhami et al., 2018). It was considered that the Dreyfus Concept of Skill Acquisition would serve as the basis for her study. Using data from chess players, tank drivers, army leaders, and air force pilots, Stuart and Hubert Dreyfus describe the Dreyfus Model of Skills Acquisition. The Dreyfus brothers held that education should be experiential and situational, with learners progressing through five stages from beginner to expert.

Stage 1 Novice:

This stage occurs when a medical student is in their first year of clinical education and exhibits rigid or limited behavior in the clinical context. The Novice level gives patients with a limited ability to foresee what may occur in specific situations (Elhami et al., 2018). For instance, indications and symptoms such as mental status changes caused by the use of tools cannot be evaluated until novice nurses have worked with patients exhibiting similar symptoms. Inexperienced nurses are required to obtain experience to enhance their decision-making abilities through the development of patient recognition and context awareness.

Stage 2 Advanced Beginner:

In this phase, students obtain their first jobs after graduation. Experience enables nurses to notice recurring and significant aspects of the current situation. In addition to knowledge and skill, they possess insufficient experience and expertise.

Stage 3 Competent:

In this phase, nurses lack speed and flexibility but possess a mastery level and might rely on meticulous planning or organizing abilities. Competent nurses are superior to advanced beginners in their ability to discern patterns and the nature of clinical problems quickly and accurately (Abd El-Hay et al., 2018).

Stage 4 Proficient:

The nurses at this point are very good at taking in the big picture rather than focusing on the details. Competent nurses draw wisdom from their experiences, adapting their care strategies in light of new information or circumstances.

Stage 5 Expert:

Achieving one’s goals requires an understanding of both available resources and the requirements of the current situation, both of which nurses at this level should have. Nurses don’t rely on predetermined positions to dictate their behavior. Instead, their vast experience and breadth of knowledge have given them an instinctive understanding of the circumstance at hand. If they have never encountered this situation before, or if it does not play out as predicted, they can apply analytical methods to make sense of it.

Explanation of where you fall on the continuum and where Sue and the students nurse fall

On this spectrum, I am currently at the beginner level. Since I am a complete newbie with zero background, I have only been taught the most fundamental, objective characteristics that can be quickly and easily identified. Sue has been working as a nurse for three years, during which time she has become an expert in her field and has become more focused on her long-term ambitions. Because of her ability to think abstractly and analytically, she is able to better plan her own actions, resulting in more productivity. Students are considered novices and have a limited capacity to anticipate outcomes in the clinical setting, such as the condition of their patients. Refresher courses are typically only necessary for recent college grads or workers returning to the workforce after an extended break (Ten et al., 2018).

Explanation of why you placed each stage in the specific category

RNs’ real-world experiences may help them get new insights and refine their abilities. In addition, according to this paradigm, progressing from the beginner stage to an advanced stage may take place over time or as a result of increased experience. It is important to highlight, however, that simulators are useful training tools that may be used by the beginner to teach the necessary knowledge and skills to the nurses. Purified knowledge refers to the experience gained through the use of such methods. The transition from the advanced novice to the component stage, as described by Benner, is accompanied by a rise in practitioners’ sense of self-assurance as a result of their having dealt with a greater variety of clinical situations and coming to trust their abilities. According to Benner’s theory, educators can benefit from using simulators to help their students learn clinical skills. There are many different types of simulators used in clinical education, including written materials, role-playing games, maquettes, and virtual patients (Elhami et al., 2018). Last but not least, it’s important to highlight the simulator’s strength and efficiency as potential tools for easing the learning process in challenging situations.

Personalized nursing theory for the above case scenario

In the aforementioned scenario, the Personalized nursing LIGHT Concept can be used to care for two patients, one of whom has had diabetes her whole life and another who developed the condition during pregnancy. The prescriptive nursing paradigm is based on a synthesis of Aristotle’s ethics. Using this framework, nurses will have a powerful tool at their disposal to promote patients’ health and wellness. This framework allows nurses to apply their knowledge, expertise, and clinical judgment in challenging situations (Abd El-Hay et al., 2018). There is a need for clinicians to hone relational or character abilities that will help them better comprehend and empathize with their patients. The professional nursing practice relies heavily on ongoing education and assessment of competence.

Conclusion

In conclusion, analyzing concept maps to enhance novice nurses’ critical thinking in the hospital context can benefit from Benner’s Novice to Expert theory as a framework. Sue must have assigned the recent graduate to the spotlight patient, given her predicament. Better health care, including the avoidance of adverse events as well as patient harm, may be possible with the use of clinical judgment and reasoning.

References

Abd El-Hay, S. A., El Mezayen, S. E., & Ahmed, R. E. (2018). Effect of concept mapping on problem-solving skills, competence in clinical setting and knowledge among undergraduate nursing students. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 8(8), 34-46.

Elhami, S., Ban, M., Mousaviasl, S., & Zahedi, A. (2018). Self-evaluation of nurses clinical competency based on benner theory. Middle East Journal of Family Medicine, 7(10), 191-7.

Ten Hoeve, Y., Kunnen, S., Brouwer, J., & Roodbol, P. F. (2018). The voice of nurses: Novice nurses’ first experiences in a clinical setting. A longitudinal diary study. Journal of clinical nursing, 27(7-8), e1612-e1626

 

Don't have time to write this essay on your own?
Use our essay writing service and save your time. We guarantee high quality, on-time delivery and 100% confidentiality. All our papers are written from scratch according to your instructions and are plagiarism free.
Place an order

Cite This Work

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below:

APA
MLA
Harvard
Vancouver
Chicago
ASA
IEEE
AMA
Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard
Need a plagiarism free essay written by an educator?
Order it today

Popular Essay Topics