Critical Thinking In Nursing

The experience I went through was the complete opposite of linear thinking. I had to dig deep into my cognitive abilities for each obstacle I was challenged with. There were times in which metacognition kicked in. For instance, while breastfeeding Madelyn, I would get anxious and question if she was okay. Should I stop feeding her or keep going? Is she turning blue or is it my imagination? Should I call the nurse over? Mental images of her not breathing replayed through my head. Metacognitive monitoring became habitual for me when it came to hearing the monitor alarms that the twins were hooked up to. I knew that the slightest stretch of the leg or that any movement encountered during a diaper change would falsely set off the alarms. It became
“What do you do when you don’t know what you are doing?” (Martinez, 2010). In the NICU the twins each had their own nurse. When my husband went back to work, it was just me at home having to comfort two crying babies at once. This was not something I had experienced in the NICU. Heuristics such as trial and error through means-end analysis would help me “make progress towards the goal” of figuring out how to soothe both babies. Problem solving and critical thinking allowed me to ask myself questions to make the situation better. Sometimes the solution was food while other times it was as simple as changing out the toy they were playing with. I just kept trying different options until something worked and the crying stopped. Although, there were times when nothing soothed the crying. When this happened the emotions I felt became overwhelming. Metacognition would kick in again where I questioned myself but didn’t have an answer. At times my emotions turned into frustration, anxiety and guilt because I had to just let them cry. This turned out to be a solution within itself. After they finished crying, they would fall asleep and wake up happy. Over time, I was able to set routines that made my day manageable. The habits I formed let the solutions to problems fall into place. Though I couldn’t solve every problem that arose, I had a
I had to use critical thinking and problem solving differently for each of them. One may think that twins achieve things together. Inductive reasoning may generalize twins as being best friends and doing what the other does. From the situations I went through, I can tell you first hand that this generalization of twins couldn’t be any different. Owen could coordinate his eating while breathing, but Madelyn would forget to breathe. Owen needed more monitoring while sleeping, as he would only fall asleep on his belly, whereas Madelyn would sleep on her back. Owen needed his pacifier to sleep, but Madelyn didn’t want anything to do with a pacifier. In the NICU, the physical therapist worked one-on-one with each baby, recognizing each as an individual and working on areas that needed further development. Identifying the needs of each twin gave me insight into assisting each one and discovering development needs that would allow me to work with them at home. Deductive reasoning became clear as I learned the individual needs of my twins. One negative syllogism I always had in the back of my brain that scared me the most about being home with Madelyn was “If I breastfeed her, then she is going to stop breathing”. I knew that if I lost Owen’s pacifier then he was going to cry until I could find another solution. I knew if Madelyn couldn’t be soothed, even after trying multiple