Factors in Critical Thinking for Nurses and Nursing Assessment

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Introduction
This report aims at identifying factors that are important in critical thinking for nurses
and nursing assessment and interview skills. This involves a concise and
comprehensive overview of the interview setup, techniques used to facilitate the
collection of data from the patient, and information gathering, and clarification
techniques used in the interview. The final section of this paper examines the
facilitators and barriers to patient interviews in provision of a comprehensive nursing
care.
Critical thinking is the process of using thinking beyond the obvious to define the
problem that a client is facing and examine the client by the evidence-based practice
(Berman et al., 2016). Clinical reasoning involves using certain thinking strategies to
gather and analyse information from a client and evaluate the significance of that
information (Lasater et al., 2014).To interview Mr Taylor who is the client, the phases
of nursing practice need to be followed. The steps include; problem solving phase,
trial and error and intuition. Mr Taylor is a 71-year-old male who has arrived at the
hospital complaining of painful and swollen joints. The patients also complain of
having a severe headache and feeling general body weakness. Mr Taylor indicates
that he had experienced chest pains before, but he never took it seriously and hence
did not bother to visit any hospital, In addition to this, Mr Taylor complains of lack of
chest pains and difficulties in breathing especially at night. Mr Taylor looks frail and
very weak. The client also seems distressed and very uncomfortable. It is important to
follow the steps of nursing practice to get the relevant and accurate information which
will help in diagnosis. To collect information from the client, it is critical to chart with
the client in a non-threatening and relaxing setting. Verbal communication should also
be enhanced by using visuals and also tactile stimuli. When speaking to the patient, it
is critical to ensure that there are no distractions and that the room is quiet and there is
proper lighting (Levett-Jones et, al 2010). The other technique applied when carrying
out the interview is utilizing the words of the clients when describing the main
complaint. To obtain reliable information from the client when carrying out the
interview, it is also important to communicate with the family of the client to get
useful information which may help in the diagnosis. Interacting with the family will
also help in understanding the social life of the patient and the care given to the client.
After gathering all the relevant information from the client, the next stage is