NANDA history

I believe Rutherford in this article makes a good case for standardized language unique to nursing: "...nurses need an explicit language to better establish their standards and influence the regulations that guide their practice..."

Standardized Nursing Language: What Does It Mean for Nursing Practice?

I'm having difficulty with students struggling to find the exact NANDA dx for their patient's problems. Rather than reason through their assessment data and synthesize in their own minds their patient's problems, I see them thumbing through NANDA to find a diagnosis that "fits".

Language has two functions (it seems to me): First... we communicate our thoughts to others (I think this is where NANDA is most significant) and second... it is the way we put sensory data together, retain and categorize it in the cortex. Here I'm finding NANDA to be a hindrance.

I don't think this is what the originators intended. Am I the only educator encountering this?

I didnt put it together in nursing school what the NANDA's truly did for me. They drove the tasks/ interventions I needed to do for each concern of the patient. Now, we use a different classification system that works better, but I can still write a mean care plan with NANDA's. You have to break the cycle of finding one that "fits". Have them write their care plan backwards, starting with the interventions appropriate for that patients medical problems and have them work backwards. Worked for me. Example: Dx: COPD. WHat do we do for COPD? Give them O2. How much?