Critical Thinking Methods of the Mind
Evaluating critical thinking can be a daunting activity. Nonetheless, a tool that is supported by several logical questions can be used to make the assessment useful for understanding cognitive behavior and decisions (Ruben and Scheffer, 2015). In this paper, the skills of critical thinking of a patient who has a new diagnosis of heart disease, which can help to self-manage the disease will be examined. The assessment will include eight cognitive habits, each question used to understand a single cognitive behavior.
Creativity:
Question
Do you incorporate green foods into your family’s or son’s diets?
Rationale
This question will help the nurse to assess the parent’s intellectual inventiveness in discovering, generating, imagining, or restructuring to develop or come up with new healthy diets. Working or busy parents often lack time to prepare healthy diets for their families. Other parents do not know how to prepare healthy diets for their families. On the contrary, creative parents and those who are interested in learning will come up with new ways to prepare healthy diets and reduce unhealthy junk foods. Creative parents will creatively develop or adopt better cooking methods to ensure that everyone eats healthy to prevent the risk of developing diseases such as diabetes or obesity, or even worsen the health of the sick child.
- Contextual Perspective:
Question
Are you concerned about the rising trend in diet-related health conditions?
Rationale
(Site) point out that individuals who have contextual perspectives are aware of the existing situation concerning the background, relationship, relevant happenings, and the general environment of a happening. This question will provide a nurse with a view on the parent’s understanding of circumstances surrounding the disease, which the child has been diagnosed with, the causes, epidemiology, and demographics or the most affected people.
- Intuition:
Question
Can you self-administer insulin to your son in critical situations when you cannot make it to the hospital in time?
Rationale
This question will be critical in providing insight into the parent’s ability to, without prior medical training, administer medication to the patient in critical situations that need their urgent input. (Site) argue that intuitive individuals are people who can reflect on personal knowledge and complete tasks or health problems without scientific evidence. Additionally, these individuals can process vital information in sophisticated cognitive activities. By showing their ability to administer insulin to the diabetic child in critical circumstances shows their intuitive nature.
- Inquisitiveness:
Question
Do you know of any methods you can use to find more information about this condition your son has been diagnosed with?
Rationale
This question can help the nurse to examine whether or the parent has an interest in learning. A curios parent will show eagerness to find knowledge about the discovered health condition affecting their child. An inquisitive parent knows how to find information and facts about issues. They show eagerness to look for information and to understand things through thoughtful questioning and observations in an attempt to be part of the solution. By showing that he or she is inquisitive, the nurse will be able to understand that the parent can find information concerning how to lead a healthy lifestyle. For example, there are different social media networks and websites which can provide crucial information on how to keep a proper diet or how to work out and keep fit to avoid diet-related illnesses. Parents who are eager to learn may find these information sources helpful, and nurses can describe parents as either being inquisitive or not based on the answers they provide for this question.
- Confidence:
Question: How does it feel when friends ask or mention the health of your son?
Rationale
This question helps evaluate confidence as a cognitive habit. It examines how the child’s parents feel concerning what friends say or ask regarding the child’s diabetic condition. This question allows the nurse to evaluate whether or not a parent’s judgment concerning their child’s health is affected by what other people think or say. Understanding how the parent feels concerning the son or family’s health can provide a burse with a contextual perspective. According to Rubenfeld and Scheffer (2015), parents that are aware of their children or family’s health, eating habits, or the absence of a workout or exercising routine can cause harm to the child by resulting in diabetes, asthma or hypertension.
- Flexibility:
Question
Are you willing to adopt a healthy lifestyle for your son and the rest of the family?
Rationale
This question will help show how well the parent is ready to adapt, change, modify, or accommodate new behaviors, ideas, or thoughts. Adopting new ways of living, primarily if people are used to a particular way of life, can be difficult. Flexibility is seen when a person is willing to leave behind a poor living style and adopt healthy living, for instance, exercising, eating more green food, and avoiding unhealthy fast and junk foods. A flexible parent will take the advice of a doctor and feed the child a healthy diet and pass them through some form of exercise to ensure that everyone remains healthy and fit.
- Open-Mindedness:
Do you think friends or relatives can help provide better ideas on how to improve your diet and your child’s health?
Rationale
This question will provide a nurse with a view of the parent’s open-mindedness. According to (site), open-minded individuals are often willing to listen to other people’s views and do not discriminate by considering their ideas superior. A parent who is willing to tolerate conflicting or divergent views and can detach from personal beliefs to consider better views from outside can avoid bias and improve the child’s health.
- Intellectual Integrity:
Question
Are you concerned about the eating habit of your son?
Rationale
The question will provide a nurse with a perspective concerning the truth through honesty and the sincerity of the parents regarding the health of the son. In some instances, parents may wish for their children to significant amounts of food to grow but, at the same time, remain worried about the health risks linked to overeating food, specifically those that may lead to obesity or diabetes. Intellectual integrity is seen through the honest information they give or the effort they put into learning new truths concerning the diagnosed health condition and good health. Rubenfeld and Scheffer (2015) opine that it is possible to identify an individual with intellectual integrity through their driving desire or urge to follow evidence and reason. These authors claim that people with robust intellectual integrity make decisions based on evidence, are fair-minded, courageous, value objective, and interested in knowledge that can lead to acceptable positive results in all circumstances.
Conclusion
The paper has analyzed various cognitive habits that can help a nurse to understand caregivers’ ability to care for patients. These include contextual perspective, confidence, flexibility, inquisitiveness, intellectual integrity, creativity, open-mindedness, and intuition. These cognitive habits are critical and useful in assessing a parent’s critical thinking ability to determine or carry out what is right for their child who is diagnosed with diabetes in different circumstances.