Critical Thinking In Nursing

Critical thinking is carried out by nurses on daily basis albeit most may not realize it. Masters (2017) defines critical thinking as, “the ability to think in a systematic and logical manner, solve problems, make decisions, and establish priorities in the clinical setting” (p 231).
I found myself in a situation that required me to act quickly to save a patient’s life in my second year as a registered nurse. I received a direct admit from a physician’s office on this day. The patient was admitted for an upper gastrointestinal bleed with a of Hemoglobin 5 gm/dL, and a Hematocrit of 17 %. He was an alcoholic and had been vomiting blood prior to arriving on our unit. A few minutes upon arrival he started coughing and became diaphoretic as well. I

His diaphoresis subsided, but then he started coughing more vigorously with blood tinged sputum. I asked another nurse to call our lab to come and type and cross him immediately. The charge nurse, and another nurse were in the room with me. Before a phlebotomist can type and cross him, the patient started complaining of nausea, then suddenly started throwing up bright red blood with clots. I looked at his emesis bag noticed about 600 cc of blood. One of the nurses paged the doctor and explained to him what was transpiring to which he ordered 5 units of packed red blood cells and said he was on his way. The type and cross had not resulted yet and so I asked the aid to run to the lab and ask for O negative blood for this patient. Some of the nurses were perplexed and asked why O negative? I said because that’s what the doctor will say when we call him back since O negative blood can be given when you have not type and cross the patient or don’t know the patient blood type. As I was explaining myself to the nurses, the doctor walked in from the GI lab, and I said to him the type and cross had not resulted