INTEGRATION OF CRITICAL THINKING AND CLINICAL REASONING
NURS 491 - Nursing Management (D)
Liberty University
Name
2022
Concept Mapping
Nurses use critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills when making decisions about client care. The
decision-making process includes prioritizing care not only with one client but when providing care to
many clients. Nurses must make decisions and also assist clients to make decisions. When faced with
several client needs at the same time, the nurse must prioritize and decide which client to assist first. In
the home care setting, the nurse must decide if the client’s condition can be managed in the home or
requires hospitalization.
The nurse must assess the ability of the caregiver and client to understand and follow all aspects of the
health care teaching the nurse has provided. The nurse must consider the client’s cultural and religious
background because both influence the outcomes of care. For example, in the Muslim religion, it is
traditional for female relatives to care for a new baby, thus allowing the new mother time to rest. If the
nurse fails to review cultural practices and insists that the new mother provide the parenting, then the
nurse has not utilized critical thought in the process of clinical reasoning during the implementation of
care. Logical reasoning is a critical thinking skill that closely aligns with clinical reasoning.
In the planning of care, nurses must question whether knowledge they possess about the care of the
client is consistent with the most current evidence-based practice. The nurse must review the most
current nursing and health-related literature prior to implementing care. A nurse’s ability to accurately
implement and integrate critical thinking, clinical judgment, and clinical reasoning is enhanced with a
commitment to lifelong learning. Andersson, Klang, and Petersson (2012) conducted a study of clinical
reasoning in a pediatric facility. They found that experience and increased education or training were
important in the development of professional competence and also enhanced clinical reasoning.
Concept Mapping and Enhancing Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning
Concept mapping provides nurses with a link between existing nursing knowledge and new information.
This learning strategy enhances the critical thinking process and can assist the nursing student in
understanding complex concepts (Chabeli, 2010). Concept maps foster the demonstration that nurses
and health care providers have acquired the body of knowledge and understanding of concepts
pertinent to the delivery of safe and effective care (Daley & Torre, 2010).
Rather than address one single client problem, the concept map can incorporate multiple problems. This
allows the nurse to demonstrate interrelationships among a client’s problems and determine care based
on the complexity of those problems (Billings & Halstead, 2012). Thus, concept mapping may be a
valuable tool to improve critical thinking. Concept mapping is a technique that uses a graphic depiction
of nonlinear and linear relationships to represent critical thinking. Also known as mind mapping, concept
maps are context dependent and can be used to develop analytical skills. The attributes of the concept
are linked, making meaning of the concept they represent.
References
1. Andersson, K. Klang, and Petersson (2012). Learning how to learn. Cambridge University Press.
2. Billings, G.L. & Halstead, D.W. (2012). Learning, creating, and using knowledge: Concept maps
as facilitative tools in schools and corporations. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
3. Daley, T.W. & Torre, (2010). Concept mapping: A useful tool for qualitative research. Evaluation
and program planning, 12(1), 1-16.
4. Daley, B. J., & Torreano, L. (2003). Using concept maps in evaluation. American Journal of
Evaluation, 24(1), 67-85.
5. Novak, J. D., & Canas, A. J. (2006). The theory underlying concept maps and how to construct
them. Technical Report IHMC CmapTools 2006-01, Institute for Human and Machine Cognition,
Florida.
