A student nurse asks how the nursing process is different from critical thinking. The best reply by the faculty member is that the nursing process is
a. a tool for applying critical thinking to patient care.
b. merely the way nurses articulate patient care needs.
c. the only way to use critical thinking for best outcomes.
d. the same thing as critical thinking divided into steps.
A
The nursing process is the tool nurses use to operationalize their critical thinking judgments about patient care.
Saying that the nursing process is merely the way nurses articulate patient care needs does not differentiate between the two concepts, nor does it show any relationship between them.
Critical thinking can be used in many different ways, including systematically and without the use of the nursing process.
Nursing process and critical thinking, although related, are not synonymous.
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