Assignment: Nursing Presentation

Beginning nursing students often tend to focus primarily on their routines, including to get their list of tasks done, including assessments, ordered treatments, daily care, and charting. What if an unexpected situation occurred during the day? Do you think you would be able to reason, plan, and take appropriate action—think critically?

Group Discussions and Reflection Another way to enhance critical thinking skills is by using group discussions to explore alternatives and arrive at conclusions (Figure 4-6). Group discussions among nursing students and teachers can take place in the classroom or following clinical experiences. During discussions, students are encouraged to formulate alternatives to

clinical or ethical decisions. Teacher and learner group discussions over clinical and ethical scenarios should encourage questions, analysis, and reflection. Group discussions can assist nursing students in connecting clinical events or decisions with information obtained in the classroom. This form of cooperative learning occurs when groups work together to maximize their own and one another’s learning. For example, following a clinical experience, students and teacher use reflection and discussion on a certain clinical experience that a student encountered. Together they discuss different scenarios of “What if?,” “What else?,” and “What then?” to encourage the formulation of alternatives or clinical decisions. Other examples of this process include the following: