Self Evaluation of Critical Thinking

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Self Evaluation of Critical Thinking Susan R. Bolte The Ohio State University College of Nursing Graduate School Self Evaluation of Critical Thinking “Critical thinking in nursing is an essential component of professional accountability and quality nursing care” (Rubenfeld & Sheffer, 2010, p. 31). Nurses that use effective critical thinking must use certain habits of the mind, as well as, specific cognitive skills. According to Rubenfeld and Sheffer (2010), critical thinking is not only important to clinicians and educators, but also, it is important to patients and their significant others as it has a direct impact on the quality of patient outcomes. Quality patient outcomes require multiple levels of thinking (p. 9). By performing a self-assessment of my own critical thinking skills, I have revealed both strengths, as well as, weaknesses which have provided a basis for this paper. Flexibility has been defined by Rubenfeld and Sheffer (2010) as the capacity to adapt, accommodate, modify or change thoughts, ideas and behaviors. A strategy to diminish my predominant weakness of flexibility in my thinking will be introduced to assist in my journey to become a highly skilled and competent critical thinker in my clinical practice. Another strategy will be to improve my ability to use self reflection, which has been defined as “contemplation upon a subject, especially one’s assumptions and thinking for the purposes of deeper understanding and self evaluation” (p. 32). These strategies will be accomplished by keeping a written diary of items that I will evaluate based on the evidence and through the use of peer appraisals of my expanding ability to consider new ideas in order to enhance my critical thinking abilities and overcome my weaknesses. The analysis of my clinical thinking was accomplished using the Critical Thinking Self-Checklist presented by
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