The Antecedents and Consequences of Decision-Making and Critical Thinking on Healthcare Policy and Patient Advocacy
Although some aspects of critical thinking and effective decision-making such as inquisitiveness and open-mindedness are inherent and natural to each individual, other antecedents to critical thinking such as possessing background knowledge and experience require time to develop. As the debate over nature versus nurture continues, most authorities agree that a combination of both is most influential in shaping peoples critical thinking abilities. To learn more, the purpose of this paper is to systematically discuss the antecedents and consequences of decision-making and critical thinking and their impact on healthcare policy and patient advocacy. Following this discussion, a summary of the findings is provided in the papers conclusion.
Review and Discussion
Antecedents of Decision-Making and Critical Thinking
Effective decision-making and critical thinking are vital antecedents for nurses to positively influence healthcare policy change and responsibly serve as patient advocates.
Nurses must carefully observe patients needs, accurately assess health issues, and use evidence-based practices to make decisions in complex situations. In this regard, Lee and Oh (2020) emphasize that, Critical thinking is considered to be a crucial element for clinical decision-making by nurses (p. 1).
Not surprisingly, nurses have been encouraged, if not specifically trained, to develop their critical thinking skills in ways that will promote objective inquiry, open-mindedness, and cognition (Kaldal et al., 2023). For instance, Lee and Oh report that, Affective dispositions such as being open-minded, inquisitive, and seeking truth can stimulate an individual towards using critical thinking through a reasoning process (p. 2). The consequences of these antecedents include timely and informed healthcare policies and nursing practice that are better configured to improve public health through safely meeting diverse care needs, overcoming healthcare disparities, and compassionately engaging patients as partners in evidence-based care aligned with their values and priorities as discussed further below.
Consequences for Healthcare Policy:
Being front-line healthcare providers, nurses are in well situated to identify opportunities for improvement in policies that affect patient care....
…outlooks and indicated willingness to intervene through appropriate channels (Alanezi, 2022).
Conclusion
The research showed that through careful observation of patient needs and system limitations, nurses hone analytical skills to identify problematic healthcare delivery trends requiring policy changes that improve health outcomes, costs, access, and equity. By leveraging decision-making expertise and evidence-based assessment of solutions, nurses have an ethical duty to give patients an informed, empowered voice advocating for patient-centered, compassionate policies and treatment delivery models aligned with their values. The research also showed that the same antecedent of critical thinking such as inquisitiveness and open-mindedness compel many individuals to pursue careers in the helping professions including most especially nursing. This also means that many nurses are already hard-wired for effective critical thinking and decision-making, but the research was also consistent in stressing the need for nurses to develop expertise, cultivate skepticism toward over-simplistic explanations, and pursue lifelong professional development opportunities in order to make substantive differences in policy formulations and meaningful contributions to patient…
