Developing Critical Thinking Skills
pitals ’ nursing staff are new nurse graduates , and hospitals remain challenged to provide the necessary support for these new nurses . Hospitals race to close the academic-to-practice gap , so that they can retain safe , competent , and confident nurses who are prepared to continue their professional growth . This means getting them upto-speed more quickly than was necessary in the past .
Reliance on integrated technology
The integration of technology into healthcare can be problematic if those providing patient care begin to replace the ability to think with that technology . Coady explains , “ Not only do nurses have a patient who could physically be having a problem , but now there is technology that could also be having a problem — and that problem could potentially put the patient in even more danger .”
Coady explains that in any area highly integrated with technology , there will also be a need for providers to have a high level ability to think critically . “ Whenever technology is introduced and people start thinking that the machine is doing everything for them , that ’ s when it is extremely important for care providers to have the ability to think critically ,” says Coady . “ The problem is when they become too comfortable with technology and assume it will tell them when a patient is not doing well ; then they start treating the monitor and not the patient . Providers have to be able to step into any situation , assess , plan , and treat in accordance with what they see in both the patient and the devices .”
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