Nursing and Midwifery - Rusman Efendi

160 DEMONSTRATING PROFICIENCY THROUGH ASSESSMENTthe transition period from student to nurse or midwife. Professionally qualifiedpractitioners must not just perform ‘routine work and go off’ (Mangena andChabeli, 2005:297), rather education should produce ‘practitioners who have theability to identify, solve problems and make decisions through the use of criticaland creative thinking’, according to Mangena and Chabeli (2005:292), whostrongly advocate critical thinking.A study amongst midwifery and nursing students found that faced with a problemaround a third avoided the problem and around a fifth did the first thingthat came to mind! (Altun, 2003.) Less than half (97 out of 218 participants)attempted to solve the problem systematically, a process clearly requiring criticalanalysis and higher-level cognitive skills. The first thing when faced with a clinicalor academic problem should in most circumstances, be the process of criticalthinking.Exercise 8.4• Review Table 8.1 and identify which components of critical thinking you haveachieved• Discuss these with a colleague (study buddy) and cite evidence to back up theclaim that you have achieved these• From those components where you recognize a need to develop, or otherhigher-level skills you need to improve on, devise an action plan to developand demonstrate these skills – this may be something you could effectively dowithin a self-appointed study groupConclusionAnalysis, synthesis and evaluation are all cognitive skills that nurses and midwivesneed to use in their professional practice. Practising critical thinking andreflection will help you develop these higher-level skills. Debate, dialogue anddiscussion with colleagues, mentors and lecturers will all contribute to improvingthese abilities and enable you to grow in confidence and achievements in yourattempts to demonstrate these skills in academic work and clinical practice.