Over years of practice, nurses will develop a ‘critical thinking’ process. Concepts are elements used in this process. A nurse can’t become proficient in critical thinking without first gaining a thorough understanding of language and the way it works. Critical thinking becomes a possibility only with the assistance of language skills. A nurse can become indispensable if she shows excellent analytical thinking skills.

A few thoughts on linguistic proficiency
 
First and foremost, a nurse will have to become familiar with words that stand for concepts or ideas, as well as with their use in the medical language. What does this mean? You have the words ‘extend’ and ‘increase.’ As far as concepts go, they are in no way complex, are they? Not many will fret about the fact that there is a minor difference between the concepts of ‘extend’ and ‘increase’. And anyways they are susceptible to value judgments. And while we’re on the subject of judgment, you should know that acting judgmental and making a judgment mean different things. You might also want to think about how being knowledgeable is not the same as being informed. How about the concept of taking a stand for your convictions versus the act of just being stubborn?

Without a good understanding of these linguistic intricacies, command of the language can prove quite difficult and will doom communication and critical thinking to utter failure. Words symbolizing concepts generally accepted and used by society, are being used to build joined thought patterns. A nurse will be at a loss when it comes to analyzing concepts, if she doesn’t have the knowledge of these thought patterns and the dictionary definitions of word meaning to clarify the concepts. For a nurse to arrive at a positive course of action after analyzing a given situation or patient, there needs to be clarity of thought. Such conceptual precision is impossible if the nurse has a poor command of language and a distorted image of the use of words and concepts.

How to test your basic understanding of ideas and concepts:

Below you will find a list of simple concepts. What you will need to do is find the difference of meaning between the words and the concepts they correspond to. Make a note for each pair of words describing the basic or most important difference. After you have made your comments, look them up in Webster’s or any other well known dictionary and see the level of your command of the language.

Just by doing a small exercise like the one described here will help you to gain a good command of the language. There are thousands of concepts that can become unclear in their use. The improvement of your linguistic skills will translate into an improvement of your nursing critical thinking.

About the author: Sheryl Sandidge is an experienced author and currently writes about sunglasses for the Dragon Sunglasses site.