I define critical thinking as being able to handle life as it comes. Critical thinking is drawing on our past experiences to make decisions about present situations. Critical thinking is more than a reaction; it’s a thoughtful, deliberate process.
Does that sound like diabetes management? It does to me! I listened to a talk not too long ago, where the presenter mentioned that it takes 10 years to become experienced at something (teaching, being a nurse, etc.). Although this person was specifically speaking about teaching, I kept thinking about how his points directly related to living with (and teaching people about) diabetes as well. There is no doubt that I am a lot better at managing my diabetes now than I was ten years ago, or ten years before that.
I once worked with a nurse at diabetes camp, who had her carb ratio down to the point that she knew exactly how much insulin to take for each food she ate – and for the most part it worked. Of course, it helped that she basically ate the same foods all the time. But we all have ways of handling this thing! Anyway, during this talk, I kept wondering how we could shorten that ten year experience rule. How could I, as a diabetes educator, help patients with newly diagnosed diabetes (and/or their family) to take it on, know how to respond to a variety of situations, and keep their head straight?
The presenter said that we can’t anticipate all the situations that will occur, because the human experience is dynamic, or always changing/moving. Just like diabetes – always changing! What matters is that we teach the essentials and count on people to apply those essentials in their lives (and they learn how to do that through experience). In diabetes education, we teach “survival skills”, which are the essentials: blood glucose monitoring, medications/insulin administration, hyper/hypoglycemia and how to treat it. If people leave us with a good knowledge of those basic topics/skills, they can go into the world and start experiencing. It is also our job to assure them that they can do this, and to give them ongoing support, encouragement and positive feedback.
The other day I wrote about conditioned responses, for example, teaching myself to stop eating after I’ve had my two Dove Promises. Although I believe there’s a place for a more black and white approach, I also believe that most things in life are gray, and therefore, we need the ability to think critically. There is no way for us to know what’s coming around the next corner, or what our next blood glucose level will be, but we can develop the ability to respond appropriately to whatever it is.