In this instructional video, the presenter introduces a practical, step‑by‑step approach to critical thinking for nursing students. She explains that critical thinking in nursing boils down to two core activities: planning ahead (anticipating tasks, batching actions, and entering a patient’s room with a clear game plan) and connecting the dots (comparing and contrasting concepts across lectures, labs, and clinicals to understand disease processes). The centerpiece of the method is the DRC model – Definition/Description (D), Reason/Rationale (R), and Connection (C). The presenter walks through each component, then applies the model to the cardiac system, showing how the heart’s function links to pulmonary and renal systems, and how failures manifest as clinical signs (e.g., lung crackles, reduced urine output, weak pulses). Throughout, she offers concrete study aids (a free cheat‑sheet, links to related videos), encourages active engagement (comments, likes, subscriptions), and teases a follow‑up video on successful nursing student habits. The overall goal is to give students a repeatable framework that turns vague expectations of “critical thinking” into actionable steps that improve exam performance and clinical competence.
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In this video, I am walking you through the step by step process for how to critically think in nursing school. I always found it crazy that when you get to nursing school, everyone throws around the phrase critical thinking and they all expect you to know how to do it, but no one tells you what it even means. So I'm going to walk you through how to critically think step by step, so that you can finally understand it and start doing it. So hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell and. And let's dive in. So here's the best news about critical thinking in nursing school. There's really only two main parts. Planning ahead and connecting the dots between everything that you're learning. That's. It doesn't sound so bad, right? But the problem is actually being able to plan ahead and connect the dots. That is not an easy task. Thankfully, I have a step by step process that I'm going to walk you through to show you exactly how to connect, connect the dots and critically think in nursing school. We'll get to that in a minute. And I also have a free critical thinking cheat sheet that walks you through this as well. The link is in the description below, so be sure to go get it after watching this video because it will really help you as you study for your classes. Okay, first, let's talk about what it actually means to plan ahead and connect the dots. And then we'll dive into the nitty gritty on how to do it. Planning ahead means pretty much like it sounds. You're always planning the next thing. You're always thinking about your next move as a nurse. So if you're going into a patient's room, what are you going to do? What supplies do you need? Do they need water or an extra gown? Is their meal tree ready? What are you going to do when you get in the room? Are you going to do an assessment and give meds? Flush their iv? Are you gonna check their drains? You should always have your game plan laid out before you walk into a patient's room. I had an instructor in nursing school who was absolutely brilliant. I totally loved her. She was the best. She had this rule that you had to do at least three things in the room. Every time you walked into that patient's room, you had to batch your tasks and have a plan before you went in. And throughout the clinical day, batching our tasks like this really added up to a lot of time saved. So instead of going back and forth in and out of the room to grab random supplies or things, we always had a game plan going in and we knew what tasks we were going to do in the room and it had to be at least three. And trust me, she would catch us and ask us right before we went into the patient's room. So we always had to be prepared. So that is planning ahead. You always need to be one step ahead and know what you're going to do next. Thankfully, that part of critical thinking is pretty easy and straightforward. Connecting the dots, however, is really where the fun starts to happen. Connecting the dots in nursing school means that you're comparing and contrasting all of the concepts and the topics that you're learning about. You're putting all the puzzle pieces together both during lecture class, skills lab, and clinical so you understand the disease process of what's going on with your patient and you understand how that disease process is causing signs and symptoms they're showing. You know what to assess for and you know what nursing interventions you would expect to do. This isn't just memorizing a list of signs and symptoms and assessments, though. Critical thinking means that you're able to compare and contrast it with other disorders and put two and two together. Don't worry, I'm going to walk you through an example in a minute, so hang tight. This is all all going to come together for you. But before we get there though, I want to give a shout out to Kia ora for our YouTube comment of the week, which says this helped me so much with understanding. I need things to be broken down like this. I get it and don't feel overwhelmed. The textbook can be intimidating. Thank you so much. Oh my. I totally agree. Those textbooks are filled with so much info it can be super hard to know what to focus on and what to study. I'm glad our videos have helped you out, friend. Thank you so much for being here and keep your comments coming. We read and respond to every one and they make me so happy. Thank you so much for all of your support. You are the best. Now, as promised, let's dive into exactly how to critically think. I'm going to walk you through the critical thinking model, which is a model that I created to walk you through exactly how how to critically think step by step. Using this critical thinking model is going to be the difference between getting an A on an exam and getting a C. You absolutely must know how to critically think in nursing school, how to pass your exams and be a rock star at clinical. So let's walk through it and I will show you exactly how to do it. The first step is the D, which Stands for definition or description. Now this is very high level, but we need to start here before we can move on to the other steps. Because if you don't understand the basics, you won't be able to understand the deeper level stuff. So this means you'll write out what it is, what you need to know about it, or what the description is of it. And don't worry, I'm gonna put all of this to an example here in a minute, so stay with me, it will all come together for you. So the first step is the D. What's the definition or description of the topic that you're learning about? Now the next step is the over R, which stands for reason or rationale. This is the why behind the topic. You'll write out why it happens and why it matters. This is the reasoning behind it. Most often this step will be related to the pathophysiology. So if you're studying a particular disorder and are writing out why it happens, this is where you'll dive into the pathophysiology of what's happening with that disorder. Now the next step is the second C, which stands for connection. This is really where your critical thinking skills will shine. You'll connect the topic to everything else that you're learning about in nursing school. This is the how. How does this topic connect to everything else? This is where it really all starts to come together. Okay, so now that we've gone over what that looks like, let's put it to an example. Let's take a really complex example like the cardiac system, and I will show you how this DRC critical thinking model works. So the first step is the D definition or description. The description of the cardiac system is that it pumps blood through the body, right? It contains the heart, the blood vessels and the blood. And when it all works together, the heart pumps the blood into the blood vessels and to the organs. Then the blood comes back to the heart to be circulated again. That's really the cardiac system in a nutshell, right? So let's move on to that deeper level, the R, which stands for reasoning or rationale. So why does this matter? Why is the cardiac system important? What's the point? So here we can write out what its purpose is and what it does. So why does it matter? Well, the blood in the cardiac system is rich with nutrients and oxygen, which are two things that the organs need to function, right? Without those nutrients and the oxygen, the organs would fail. The blood also takes away deoxygen, oxygenated blood and waste products from the organs. So as the organs and the body tissues function throughout the day, they create waste products like carbon dioxide and lactic acid. It's the blood's job to take those waste products and take them to where they need to go so that they can be removed from the body. If the blood didn't do its job, those waste products could just build up to toxic levels in the body, cause major issues like metabolic acidosis. And no worries. If you need a refresher on the pathway of blood flow through the heart and how it all works, you could check out that video right there. So that's the R part of the DRC critical thinking model for the cardiac system. It transports nutrients and oxygen to the body tissues and removes toxic waste products that the tissues don't need. Now let's move on to the really good part, the C, which stands for connection. How does the cardiac system connect with everything else you're learning in nursing school? School. This is really where the fun begins. The cardiac system really affects the entire body, but let's focus on two main areas that it impacts, the lungs and the kidneys. So in nursing school, you'll probably study the respiratory system along with the cardiac system, and you might even study the renal system, the kidneys, along with it, too. So that's why I want to connect all three of those together for you. I'm basically going to give you all of the answers here. So let's walk through it. The cardiac system. Cardiac system sends blood to all the other organs and tissues in the body, including the lungs and the kidneys. So if the heart is pumping fine and the blood is circulating properly, the lungs and the kidneys are happy campers and they can do their job just fine. But if the heart starts to fail or if the blood isn't able to circulate properly, then that's where we start to see problems. If the blood isn't able to get pumped out of the heart and move forward to the body, then it's going to stagnate and stay in the heart and back up in the system. And where's the first place it's going to back up? Into the lungs? If the left ventricle can't pump blood out to the body, it's going to back up into the lungs. Now, this will lead to a whole bunch of problems. What do you think will happen to the lungs when they have extra blood and fluid in them? Well, they'll get filled with all that fluid, right? So when you listen with your stethoscope, you will probably hear crackles which are caused by that fluid buildup in the lungs. Your patient may be having trouble breathing since their lungs aren't able to do all the gas exchange that they need to because they have that layer of fluid in the lungs. Now, on the cardiac side, if blood isn't going to the rest of the body, including the kidneys, we what would you expect to see now? I'll give you a few seconds to think about it. I know you can do it. Okay, so if the heart isn't able to pump blood to the rest of the body, including the kidneys, what would you expect to see? Now, the first thing that came to my mind was a decrease in urine output. If the kidneys are not getting enough blood, they aren't going to be able to do their job and make urine, right? So they will have a decreased urine output. Now, on top of that, if the heart isn't pumping blood to the body, you'll probably notice that it's harder to feel the patient's pulses in their wrists or in their feet. Now, if the blood isn't pumping there as much, their pulses will be decreased. Their hands and their feet might also be cold or pale since there isn't as much blood circulating there to warm them up. So you see how all of these things connect together, right? This is exactly what you'll walk through during step number three of the DRC Critical Thinking model. Connect the dots with everything that you're learning. Really challenge yourself here. I don't want you to stay high level and call it good. No, I want you to dig deep and really try to put the concepts together. If you're a nursing SOS member, be sure to log into your dashboard and find the course that goes along with what you're studying in class. And watch those videos if you need help with it. I will walk you through the critical thinking for all of it so it will make this process a whole lot easier for you. Now in the next video, I'm going to tell you the top habits of successful nursing students. So if you want to succeed in nursing school, make sure you're doing these things. They are super important. And make sure that you've clicked the notification bell to get notified when we post that video or you might miss it. Now hit that like button. Leave a comment below and share this video with a friend. And click on one of these videos right over here so you can keep rocking nursing school and friend. Go become the nurse that God created only you to be. Now I'll catch you in the next video. Take care. Bye. Bye.
