I'm sorry, but some nursing diagnoses are just ridiculous!

hippienurse · Feb 24, 2005

Disturbed energy field

This one cracks me up! Like how often do we diagnose someone's aura? :rotfl:

Related Factors listed in my pocket guide? TO BE DEVELOPED (hehe!)

Definining Characteristics.... Disruption in field (wave/spike/tingling/flowing)

"Nursing Priority---Move hands slowly over the clien at level of 2 to 3 inches above skin to ASSESS STATE OF ENERGY FIELD AND FLOW OF ENERGY WITHIN THE SYSTEM"

Hmmm...........

"allow client's body to pull back/repattern energy as needed"

"Hold client's feet for a few moments at the end of the session to ASSIST IN GROUNDING THE BODY'S ENERGY"

I am all for homeopathic interventions, but I never thought I would see this in a nursing book... *shrug*

CarVsTree · Feb 24, 2005

I really thought you had some crackerjack book with some of those dxs. I HAD to look them up to believe it. I looked it up in Ackley/Ladwig and sure enough they were all there.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Can't see myself using the energy field one, but I should try it on one of my careplans... :rotfl:

klone, MSN, RN · Feb 24, 2005

I really thought you had some crackerjack book with some of those dxs. I HAD to look them up to believe it. I looked it up in Ackley/Ladwig and sure enough they were all there.

That's the book I have! :chuckle

Altra, BSN, RN · Feb 25, 2005

My favorite instructor once promised to put any assessment/care plan containing "Disturbed Energy Field" through the paper shredder ... :rotfl:

kc2004 · Feb 25, 2005

We used to have a nurse who would use that

one (disturbed energy field ) to get out of working

night shift.

kc2004 · Feb 25, 2005

oops.

HappyNurse2005, RN · Feb 25, 2005

Ineffective denial...as opposed to EFFECTIVE denial?
Disturbed energy field
Impaired environmental interpretation syndrome
Health-seeking behaviors (the horror!)
Impaired home maintenance (I'm guilty of that one! If only I could do a collaborative intervention with Merry Maids)
Ineffective protection
Noncompliance
Wandering

See, noncompliance is not ridiculous. Noncompliance is a big issue with many people. The complexities of many diseases, the difficult management of said disease (think diabetes, liver disease, etc), leads many patients to be noncompliant with their therapy, which has major implications for their health. I heard a nurse telling a pt about taking Lasix at home-twice a day (had CHF) Pt didn't want to take it twice a day, b/c she didn't want to get up to pee at night. THis could have lead to pulm edema at night if she had all that fluid in her from not taking her Lasix. If a nurse can do something to help "fix" the noncompliance issue(educate her on the importance, the risks, get her a bedside commode so she doesn't have to go far when she gets up), then this can improve the health of hte patient. Noncompliance is common, and important, certainly not ridiculous.

RN4NICU, LPN, LVN · Feb 25, 2005

Health seeking behaviors is not ridiculous either. It recognizes a patient's strength to build upon it. Not everything has to focus on what is wrong. Sometimes it is a good idea to build upon what is right. That is what separates nursing from medicine. Nurses use strengths to address weaknesses. Doctors focus on what is wrong (usually by throwing drugs at it or surgically removing it )

Noncompliance is also not ridiculous, as the poster before me pointed out. It is an important nursing consideration.

klone, MSN, RN · Feb 25, 2005

Yes, I realize that ALL of them are legitimate when you actually look beneath the surface (okay, maybe not energy field). I figured someone would pick apart my post and say why I'm wrong. I was slappy, sleep deprived, and working on a 10-page clinical worksheet as I posted that last night. Just trying to bring a little levity to the board. Sorry, won't happen again.

Tony35NYC · Feb 25, 2005

Perhaps not as ridiculous as you think.

1. Denial, as a coping mechanism, is never effective.

2. Disturbed energy field is valid as a nursing diagnosis because parts of it highlight the importance of the relationship between a healthy body and a healthy mind. In psych nursing we learn that if (even a non-physical) stressor were to relentlessly disturb a person's mental health balance, that person will eventually begin to experience physical symptoms.

3. Why is Impaired Environmental Interpretation Syndrome ridiculous? Have you ever worked with patients who were experiencing early onset dementia, or newly diagnosed schitzophrenics, or chronic addictive substance abusers? Most of these people have diminished cognitive abilities, and they sometimes have to be put in a home or in some type of assisted living facility for their own protection.

4. Why not Health Seeking Behaviors? This is always a great nursing diagnosis for community health nursing. People don't always seek healthcare just because they are sick. Sometimes its for a routine physical, or because they have questions or concerns about things like how to better manage their diabetes, or to test for a sexually transmitted disease, or to get free contraceptives.

5. I can't believe you don't see the value of Impaired Home Maintenance Management. This one is not only about having an untidy house. Its more about not having the resources necessary to support the household. This is a critical nursing diagnosis, especially when planning for the discharge of indigent patients. If people don't have the money to pay the rent, buy food, and keep their home clean they won't be too concerned about compliance with medical care. And, soon after discharge they will probably be back in the hospital again.

6. You don't like Altered Protection??? Remember that everything about nursing care is based on Maslow's pyramid. And, in that pyramid, the safety needs are the second most important needs. When a person feels threatened the resulting stress causes psychological as well as physiological alternations in that person. If the nurse ignores the patient's altered mental health status then the whole point of the nursing process is lost.

7. I agree with RNinMay about Noncompliance. That is a HUGELY important nursing diagnosis. It happens all the time and for many different reasons.

8. I don't know about Wandering, but I can see how a nurse could use this for confused and neurotic patients. It could identify the need for 1:1 care and observation, or physical restraints if the patient is a jaywalker who tends to arbitrarily take off and disappear somewhere down the street.

I had an instructor who encouraged us to make up our own nursing diagnoses. I love to have fun with these diagnoses, but this is a nursing school thing. In the critical care unit where I work, the nurses have no time to mess around with drawn out nursing diagnoses, they just get straight to the point!

mariedoreen · Feb 25, 2005

Can't see myself using the energy field one, but I should try it on one of my careplans... :rotfl:

Oh, that's hilarious! I'm going to throw it on to one of mine and see what my instructor says!!!! How in the heck are they going to argue against it? "I went and checked their energy field and it was just fine for me..." ?? Heck maybe I'll start putting it on everyone's care plan :chuckle