Critical thinking is defined as the ability and willingness to assess claims and make reasonable judgments based on sound rationale rather emotion. Evidence-based practice refers to as an interdisciplinary approach that entails effective decision-making processes of how to provide quality healthcare services by integrating the best available evidence with practitioner skills and expertise and other healthcare resources.
Critical thinking is the core of the nursing practice. Primarily, it entails mental traits and habits that drive a nurse to be willing to suspend own judgments and understand a patient’s or colleague’s point of view. It enables the nurses to act competently in practice. Moreover, it entails intellectual skills and abilities for sound reasoning. Notwithstanding the considerable challenges that they face, nurses are required to think through and reason clearly for effective client care. Critical thinking in healthcare also entails intuition implying that a nurse is needed to develop the art of trusting own thinking to make decision making clear, accurate, and defensible. It is crucial in nursing practice as it enables nurses to make clear and precise decisions while dealing with critical situations.
Critical thinking is vital to evidence-based nursing practice and they work hand in hand to support nursing care thus contributing to positive care outcomes. Evidence-based practice helps nurses to formulate clear clinical questions relevant to a patient’s problem. Moreover, it assists the nursing professionals in evaluating and implementing the validity and usefulness of clinical practice findings. It also enables nurses to search literature from relevant clinical articles that could help them in effective decision making. Indeed, CT is paramount in the evidence-based practice as it equips nurses with the necessary skills and dispositions to deal with particular situations.