Future nurses at Mount Saint Mary College got a lesson in real-world clinical judgment from one of the region’s top nursing leaders, Christina Bierling-Norris, PhD, RN, NPD-BC, Regional Senior Director of Nursing for Westchester Medical Center.
Bierling-Norris brought her two decades of experience to campus for the session “Acute Care Nursing: Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning” on Wednesday, October 29.
At the talk, sponsored by the Mount’s Nursing Workforce Diversity group, the School of Nursing, and the Student Nurses’ Association, Bierling-Norris led attendees in a deep dive into the elements of critical thinking and their application to clinical decision-making for acute patient care.
Despite what one might initially guess, Bierling-Norris noted that critical thinking is a skill that can be developed – and it’s especially vital for nurses. Identifying problems, setting goals, and prioritizing interventions are examples of critical thinking in action.
Bierling-Norris warned that everyone has some form of implicit bias, but being aware of that fact and acting accordingly can ultimately improve patient outcomes.
“You have to be very, very aware of where your own biases lie,” she said. “You have to know when somebody presents in front of you... when you might be interpreting that data through the lens of something you know about them.”
Implicit bias contributes to the high maternal mortality rate in the United States, said Bierling-Norris, which is 22.3 out of 100,000 live births. That number is significantly higher for women of color at almost 50 out of 100,000, according to Bierling-Norris. She also noted that a child of color who enters an emergency room is statistically less likely to receive the same pain control as their white counterparts.
“It’s implicit bias,” she said. “It’s these societal and cultural beliefs that we carry with us that we don't even recognize.”
Thinking critically about yourself and your perceptions can only increase the quality of patient care, she concluded.