Decision Making, Problem Solving, and Critical Thinking Requisites for Successful
Leadership and Management

      To cope with the realities of today’s health care system, nurses must be prepared to be critical thinkers. Much of any manager’s time is spent critically examining issues, solving problems, and making decisions. It is the authors’ belief that problem solving, decision making, and critical thinking are learned skills that improve with practice. So that the processes can be consistently replicated, these learned skills rely heavily on established tools,
techniques, and strategies.

      Decision making is a complex, cognitive process often defined as choosing a particular course of action.Webster’s definition—to “judge or settle”—is another view of decision making. Problem solving is part of decision making.

      Decision making is the last step in the problem-solving process, it is possible for decision making to occur without the full analysis required in problem solving. 

      Here is an example of a decision not to solve a problem. A nursing supervisor has a staff nurse who has been absent a great deal during the last 3 months. However, the supervisor has reliable information that the nurse will be resigning soon to return to school in another state. Because the problem will soon no longer exist, the supervisor decides that the time and energy needed to correct the problem are not warranted.

    Critical thinking, sometimes referred to as reflective thinking, is related to evaluation and has a broader scope than decision making and problem solving.