2.
Provide opportunities for students to use critical thinking and problem solving in their professional lives.
Health professionals, regardless of their specific disciplines, will be expected to think critically and problem solve effectively to be successful in very complex health care environments. Critical thinking is defined as the use of logic and reasoning to resolve complex problems; problem-solving involves developing and evaluating specific interventions to resolve those same complex problems. These two cognitive processes combined with the knowledge students have gained will require either application, analysis, or evaluation to determine interventions that result in positive outcomes for patients.
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Critical Thinking & Problem-Solving
Knowledge
Interventions
Positive Outcomes
How do we teach students to apply the necessary knowledge in specific situations to achieve positive outcomes? Three teaching strategies are important. 1. Students must have the opportunity to practice using critical thinking and problem-solving in class and other learning opportunities. Class activities and assignments must require students to demonstrate how they would apply, analyze, or evaluate knowledge in “real-world” situations, in order to develop interventions resulting in positive outcomes. 2. Students must also be able to transfer what they learned from one situation to another. An important part of teaching is to help students identify the similarities and differences in various situations, building the students’ “bank” of understanding of their discipline. For example, when respiratory care students can use their knowledge of the respiratory system to determine if the symptoms a young child is experiencing represents a potential danger, even though they have only cared for adults with similar symptoms, they are able to transfer knowledge across clinical situations. 3. Student testing, whether in written examinations or face-to-face competency evaluations, must require students to apply , analyze , or evaluate scenarios, not simply identify knowledge. For example, a physical therapy assistant student should be able to not simply identify bones, muscles, and joints, they must also know how to use that knowledge to answer a question about how to appropriately wrap a dislocated shoulder in a specific clinical scenario. The goal of all health careers faculty is to prepare students for successful practice in current and future health care environments. Providing multiple opportunities to apply, analyze and evaluate clinical information using critical thinking and problem-solving to provide the best care possible is a necessary skill for all health care faculty.
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