"This much-needed volume brings to the clinician or student some of the best critical-minded analysis by some of the most insightful thinkers about psychiatric diagnosis today. The thought-provoking questions these essays raise, and the multifaceted and provocative answers they provide, cultivate sensitivity to the nuances of diagnostic assessment that often makes the difference between clinical success and failure." - Jerome C. Wakefield, PhD, DSW, New York University Silver School of Social Work, New York This transformative resource challenges social workers and mental health professionals to rethink their approaches to assessment and diagnosis from the ground up. Among the book’s unique features are its use of diverse lenses to examine a common case and its illustration of how multiple perspectives can be integrated for a richly textured portrait of the individual in context. Equally crucial is the book’s commitment to professional development, from exercises to improve case conceptualization to strategies for teaching and learning. Topics include: The DSM-5 definition of mental disorder: critique and alternatives. Making assessment decisions: macro, mezzo, and micro perspectives. Neuroscience, resilience, and the embodiment of “mental” disorder. Narrative, psychodynamic, and cultural conceptualizations of disorder. Person-centered and contextualized diagnosis in mental health. Meeting the challenge of teaching integrated assessment. Critical Thinking in Clinical Assessment and Diagnosis has much to offer professionals, researchers, and educators in the fields of social work and mental health. .

The Thinker’s Guide to Clinical Reasoning introduces healthcare students and professionals to the foundations of critical thinking and offers examples of applications within clinical fields. It is not enough for healthcare workers to have access to data and research, they must also know how to analyze and process information to guide patients in making the best decisions about their health. This process requires critical thinking skills often ignored in healthcare curricula. As part of the Thinker’s Guide Library, this book advances the mission of the Foundation for Critical Thinking to promote fairminded critical societies through cultivating essential intellectual abilities and virtues across every field of study across world.

Critical thinking is an essential skill for learners and teachers alike. Therefore, it is essential that educators be given practical strategies for improving their critical thinking skills as well as methods to effectively provide critical thinking skills to their students. The Handbook of Research on Critical Thinking and Teacher Education Pedagogy examines and explains how new strategies, methods, and techniques in critical thinking can be applied to classroom practice and professional development to improve teaching and learning in teacher education and make critical thinking a tangible objective in instruction. This critical scholarly publication helps to shift and advance the debate on how critical thinking should be taught and offers insights into the significance of critical thinking and its effective integration as a cornerstone of the educational system. Highlighting topics such as early childhood education, curriculum, and STEM education, this book is designed for teachers/instructors, instructional designers, education professionals, administrators, policymakers, researchers, and academicians.

Explores key topics in psychology, showing how they can be critically examined.

This revolutionary, user-friendly textbook not only guides social workers in developing competence in the DSM system of diagnosis, it also assists them in staying attuned during client assessment to social work values and principles: a focus on client strengths, concern for the worth and dignity of individuals, appreciation of environmental influences on behavior, and commitment to evidence-informed practice. The authors, seasoned practitioner-scholars, provide an in-depth exploration of fourteen major mental disorders that social workers commonly see in practice, including anxiety disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. They skillfully integrate several perspectives in order to help practitioners meet the challenges they will face in client assessment. A risk and resilience framework helps social workers understand environmental influences on the emergence of mental disorders and the strengths that clients already possess. Social workers will also learn to apply critical thinking to the DSM when it is inconsistent with social work values and principles. Finally, the authors catalog the latest evidence-based assessment instruments and treatments for each disorder so that social workers can intervene efficiently and effectively, using the best resources available. Students and practitioners alike will appreciate the wealth of case examples, evidence-based assessment instruments, treatment plans, and new social diversity sections that make this an essential guide to the assessment and diagnostic processes in social work practice.

Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. According to Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients. It is likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. Diagnostic errors may cause harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment, providing unnecessary or harmful treatment, or resulting in psychological or financial repercussions. The committee concluded that improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative. Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, a continuation of the landmark Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), finds that diagnosis-and, in particular, the occurrence of diagnostic errorsâ€"has been largely unappreciated in efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, diagnostic errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity. Just as the diagnostic process is a collaborative activity, improving diagnosis will require collaboration and a widespread commitment to change among health care professionals, health care organizations, patients and their families, researchers, and policy makers. The recommendations of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care contribute to the growing momentum for change in this crucial area of health care quality and safety.

What's behind every healed patient? Critical thinking! And what book best equips you to master the critical thinking skills needed for success on the NCLEX examination and in professional nursing practice? Alfaro's Critical Thinking, Clinical Reasoning, and Clinical Judgment, 6th Edition! With a motivational style and insightful "how-to" approach, this unique textbook draws upon real-life scenarios and evidence-based strategies as it guides you in learning to think critically in clinically meaningful ways. The new edition features a more streamlined, full-color design, and expanded coverage on some of key trends, including: interdisciplinary care teams, competency-based education, the IOM's Leading Health Indicators, legal considerations, the effects of the Affordable Care Act, and much more. If you want to truly succeed in nursing practice today and be thinking-oriented rather than task-oriented, then look no further than this one-of-a-kind textbook. - Simple approach and motivational writing style include vivid examples, memorable anecdotes, and real case scenarios to make content come alive. - Practical strategies to promote critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and clinical judgment are incorporated along with supporting evidence as to why the strategies work. - Focus on application (or "how to") and inclusion of supporting rationales (theory) make difficult concepts easy to learn. - Critical thinking indicators feature evidence-based descriptions from the author of behaviors that promote critical thinking in nursing practice. - Highlighted features and sections — such as Chapter at a Glance, Pre-Chapter Self-Tests, Guiding Principles, Critical Moments, Other Perspectives, Think-Pair-Share, Help Me Out cartoons, real-life clinical scenarios, key points, critical thinking exercises, and more — promote independent learning. - UNIQUE! Brain-based learning principles utilize strategies that challenge the mind and are incorporated throughout the text. - Timely coverage includes topical issues, such as: problem-focused versus outcome-focused thinking, prioritizing, developing a culture of safety, healthy work environments, expanding roles related to diagnosis and management, applying delegation principles, evidence-based practice, improving grades and passing tests the first time, NCLEX preparation, ensuring documentation reflects critical thinking, communication and interpersonal skills, strategies for common workplace challenges, and more. - Inclusion of ethics- and standards-based professional practice reflects today's professional climate which demands increasing accountability. - Incorporation of cultural, spiritual, and lifespan content along with the nurse's role in hospitals, communities, and long-term care settings presents a broad approach to critical thinking. - Discussion of Tanner and Benner's most recent work on what the research says about critical thinking and clinical judgment in nursing keeps readers up to date on the evidence-based side of practice. - Coverage of IOM, QSEN, and other patient safety standards also keeps readers up to date on safe and effective nursing care.