Dx = Diagnosis or Disease?

[AragornSkywalker]

Or is it interchangable? This has been bothering me for awhile. Google say diagnosis but my abbreviations list for my nursing program says disease.

[jtmonique]

dx is diagnosis.

[elkpark]

I've always seen and used it as "diagnosis." However, some abbreviations are used pretty casually (to mean several different things) -- that's where people get into trouble.

[CardioTrans, BSN, RN]

I have also always seen it as diagnosis............ have seen Dz as disease.

[Pneumothorax, BSN, RN]

right. Dx- diagnosis dz- disease.

thats how i learned it.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I believe that the root cause of the confusion is that in the medical world, the "diagnosis" and the "disease" are the same thing. So when physicians and/or average people say "diagnosis," they are usually referring to the "disease." The same is true of engineering diagnoses, plumbers' diagnoses, etc. When most people say "diagnoses," they are talking about the cause of the problems the client is experiencing, not the signs/symptoms/effects of those underlying problems.

When nurses started to use the word "nursing diagnosis" instead of "nursing problems," it created a new category of diagnoses -- one that is not synonomous with the disease. Hence, the confusion. I wish they had used a different word or phrase.

[HyperSaurus, RN, BSN]

Dx=diagnosis

Dz=disease

[theykallmekem]

Dx=diagnosis

Dz=disease

that is correct.

[Bug Out, BSN]

Abbreviations mean whatever the writer intended it to be. Simply put you should not be using or allow anyone to use them, hence the push to rid medicine of them...HA!

Dx can be Diagnosis, Disease, Dressing, Doo Doo, Donut, Dog, Dentist, or Duper.

You have to read the context to know the meaning.

[devons1972]

Been a nurse for 10 years - Dx is diagnosis