Holistic critical thinking in times of covid-19 pandemic: unveiling fundamental skills to clinical nursing practice

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic reinforced the importance of evaluating and developing critical thinking skills in the health area, especially in nursing, a profession so demand, as well as other professions of the multidisciplinary teams that are at the front line of care for victims of this overwhelming infectious disease.The importance of training professionals capable of thinking and acting in adverse and complex scenarios, such as a pandemic, must be emphasized. Thus, we highlight the importance of teaching the essential cognitive, behavioral, and mind habits of critical thinking, such as: analysis, interpretation, inference, evaluation, explanation, and self-regulation. In addition to these skills, characteristic of strong critical thinkers, several vital habits of mind can be highlighted, such as: open mind, knowledge transformation, having organized thinking, trusting in reasoning, making mature decisions, anticipating consequences, being courageous to follow reasons and evidence wherever they may lead (also known as intellectual honesty), being inquisitive to seek new knowledge, adaptability, creativity, or resourcefulness in solving problems, perseverance, and contextual perspective (1) .We live in difficult times, science mistrust, facts denial, intentional untruths spread on Internet, political polarization, competitive labor market, scarcity of resources in emerging countries, racial, religious, and gender intolerance, among many other social and economic problems infesting the world population.In this context of adversity and countless challenges, the best nurses and health professionals will be those who undergo themselves to careful assessments and intentional training of their critical thinking and clinical reasoning habits skills. These professionals will bring better results to clinical practice (2) .In a historical and cultural analysis of the current situation, the importance of rethinking the curriculum structure of basic and higher education is highlighted, considering critical thinking skills, habits of mind, respect for ethical, culture, religion, and values of populations to better enable individuals to live and be human with each other. Accepting differences and building together a better world to live -in this way, we want to highlight the importance of transforming. Work environments and teams with strong critical thinking, keeping more cohesive and stronger teams to face the challenges of practice, and this is no different in the health area.The Covid-19 pandemic relighted the lamp and the ideals of Florence Nightingale regarding the performance and appreciation of nursing in different health services; human care and care focused on its environments and conditions were highly emphasized (3) .

Pensamento crítico e as estratégias de ensino para docentes do curso de graduação em enfermagem

“…Sob este ponto de vista, por ser fundamentalmente reflexivo, é preciso que se leve em conta a forma que o encontro entre docente e educando tenha seu devido valor no cotidiano de ensino, almejando reconhecer como os problemas são enquadrados, e assim os valores profissionais considerados, a fim de buscar a qualidade das evidências, a adequação dos métodos, a razoabilidade dos critérios, a aplicabilidade de teorias e princípios. Desta maneira, o educando apreenderá a reagir a situações clínicas de forma reflexiva, já que o enfermeiro com forte pensamento crítico considerará uma variedade de fatores, incluindo dados clínicos, a vida e a situação familiar do paciente 24 .…”

Fatores Estressores Na Atividade Do Enfermeiro

“…Salienta-se que a formação superior tem influência no reconhecimento da profissão, assim como a configuração da enfermagem no mundo do trabalho, além de ter o potencial de modificar a concepção limitada sobre as áreas de atuação da profissão que, muitas vezes, está impregnada nos recém-ingressos (Facione;Crossetti;Riegel, 2017).…”

Suggestions for overcoming the barriers to critical thinking in nursing

“…For nurses, critical thinking is the cornerstone of evidence-based practice and high quality of care (Christodoulakis et al, 2022). Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic has underlined the need for nurses to have higher levels of critical thinking (Facione et al, 2021). Therefore, studies have highlighted teaching strategies that could improve critical thinking (Christodoulakis et al, 2022), but utilizing them can be challenging (Lee et al, 2016).…”