Nanda-I diagnosis - totally confused

Kuriin, BSN, RN · Oct 7, 2014

I'm looking at my book and it doesn't say "if the nurse can treat it, it is not a nursing diagnosis" because many nursing diagnoses are based on collaborative care. Heck, many of the EBP rationales are based around collaborative care.

edit: Also just remember ventilation different from perfusion.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Oct 7, 2014

Welcome!

I can tell you are not in the US because of your lab values...here is my standard.

Care plans are all about the patient assessment...of the patient. Let the patient/patient assessment drive your diagnosis. Do not try to fit the patient to the diagnosis you found first. You need to know the pathophysiology of your disease process. You need to assess your patient, collect data then find a diagnosis. Let the patient data drive the diagnosis.

The medical diagnosis is the disease itself. It is what the patient has not necessarily what the patient needs. the nursing diagnosis is what are you going to do about it, what are you going to look for, and what do you need to do/look for first.

Care plans when you are in school are teaching you what you need to do to actually look for, what you need to do to intervene and improve for the patient to be well and return to their previous level of life or to make them the best you you can be. It is trying to teach you how to think like a nurse.

Think of the care plan as a recipe to caring for your patient. your plan of how you are going to care for them. how you are going to care for them. what you want to happen as a result of your caring for them. What would you like to see for them in the future, even if that goal is that you don't want them to become worse, maintain the same, or even to have a peaceful pain free death.

Every single nursing diagnosis has its own set of symptoms, or defining characteristics. they are listed in the NANDA taxonomy and in many of the current nursing care plan books that are currently on the market that include nursing diagnosis information. You need to have access to these books when you are working on care plans. You need to use the nursing diagnoses that NANDA has defined and given related factors and defining characteristics for. These books have what you need to get this information to help you in writing care plans so you diagnose your patients correctly.

Don't focus your efforts on the nursing diagnoses when you should be focusing on the assessment and the patients abnormal data that you collected. These will become their symptoms, or what NANDA calls defining characteristics. From a very wise an contributor daytonite.......make sure you follow these steps first and in order and let the patient drive your diagnosis not try to fit the patient to the diagnosis you found first.

Here are the steps of the nursing process and what you should be doing in each step when you are doing a written care plan: ADPIE from our Daytonite

Assessment
(collect data from medical record, do a physical assessment of the patient, assess ADLS, look up information about your patient's medical diseases/conditions to learn about the signs and symptoms and pathophysiology)
Determination of the patient's problem(s)/nursing diagnosis
(make a list of the abnormal assessment data, match your abnormal assessment data to likely nursing diagnoses, decide on the nursing diagnoses to use)
Planning
(write measurable goals/outcomes and nursing interventions)
Implementation
(initiate the care plan)
Evaluation
(determine if goals/outcomes have been met)

Care plan reality: The foundation of any care plan is the signs, symptoms or responses that patient is having to what is happening to them. What is happening to them could be the medical disease, a physical condition, a failure to perform ADLS (activities of daily living), or a failure to be able to interact appropriately or successfully within their environment. Therefore, one of your primary goals as a problem solver is to collect as much data as you can get your hands on. The more the better. You have to be the detective and always be on the alert and lookout for clues, at all times, and that is Step #1 of the nursing process.

Assessment is an important skill. It will take you a long time to become proficient in assessing patients. Assessment not only includes doing the traditional head-to-toe exam, but also listening to what patients have to say and questioning them. History can reveal import clues. It takes time and experience to know what questions to ask to elicit good answers (interview skills). Part of this assessment process is knowing the pathophysiology of the medical disease or condition that the patient has. But, there will be times that this won't be known. Just keep in mind that you have to be like a nurse detective always snooping around and looking for those clues.

A nursing diagnosis standing by itself means nothing. The meat of this care plan of yours will lie in the abnormal data (symptoms) that you collected during your assessment of this patient......in order for you to pick any nursing diagnoses for a patient you need to know what the patient's symptoms are. Although your patient isn't real you do have information available.

What I would suggest you do is to work the nursing process from step #1.

Take a look at the information you collected on the patient during your physical assessment and review of their medical record. Start making a list of abnormal data which will now become a list of their symptoms. Don't forget to include an assessment of their ability to perform ADLS (because that's what we nurses shine at). The ADLS are bathing, dressing, transferring from bed or chair, walking, eating, toilet use, and grooming. and, one more thing you should do is to look up information about symptoms that stand out to you.

What is the physiology and what are the signs and symptoms (manifestations) you are likely to see in the patient.

Did you miss any of the signs and symptoms in the patient? if so, now is the time to add them to your list.

This is all part of preparing to move onto step #2 of the process which is determining your patient's problem and choosing nursing diagnoses. but, you have to have those signs, symptoms and patient responses to back it all up.

Care plan reality: What you are calling a nursing diagnosis is actually a shorthand label for the patient problem.. The patient problem is more accurately described in the definition of the nursing diagnosis.

Another member GrnTea say this best......

A nursing diagnosis statement translated into regular English goes something like this: "I think my patient has ____(nursing diagnosis)_____ . I know this because I see/assessed/found in the chart (as evidenced by) __(defining characteristics) ________________. He has this because he has ___(related factor(s))__."

"Related to" means "caused by," not something else.

assessment consists of gathering data about:

a health history (review of systems) - you've provided more than enough of that
performing a physical exam - you have none and this information is crucial to have
assessing their adls (at minimum: bathing, dressing, mobility, eating, toileting, and grooming) you have none and we nurses are pros at adls--its what we do
reviewing the pathophysiology, signs and symptoms and complications of their medical condition - this information is needed for the etiologies on your nursing diagnostic statements
reviewing the signs, symptoms and side effects of the medications/treatments that have been ordered and that the patient is taking - what its side effects and potential complications are

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Oct 7, 2014

My patient presents to a&e with an acute asthmatic attack secondary to bacterial chest infection. BP 110/50, P112 bounding, R32 regular, rapid, shallow, temp 39.0.

She has productive cough w/green sputum, worse at night, flu like symptoms. Attended gp and prescribed augementin II tid x 7/7 plus low dose pulmicort to be taken with existing ventolin inhaler. But she continued to deteriorate and presented to a&e.
SpO2 90%, PaO2 8kpa, PaCo2 6.5kpa, pefr 40% of best, HB 14, eosinophils 550/ul, na+ 138 mmol, mg+ 1.5. Cxr shows bilateral basal consolidation and hyperinflation.
On inspection, Central cyanosis, using accessory muscles, orthopnoenic position, prolonged forced expiration on palpation, symmetrical chest wall excursion. Hyper resonant sounds due to air trapping on percussion, bilateral crackles and wheezes on auscultation.

This is a very sick patient. You look at what the patient presents with and what concerns you. It jumps out at you that she is hypoxic. Priority ABC....Airway, Breathing, Circulation. Now you look at your NANDA resource and try to match the patient to the descriptions you see in the book.

I see these....Ineffective Airway Clearance, Ineffective Breathing Pattern, Impaired Gas Exchange all three apply.

Part 2. Diagnosis
impaired gas exchange due to acute asthma attack and chest infection(MD diagnosis not a nursing one) as evidenced by dyspnoea, orthopnoenic position, Central cyanosis, SpO2 90%, PaO2 8, PaCo2 6.5

Now what the NANDA means by it must be a nursing diagnosis is that you cannot use a medical diagnosis in your statement.

due to acute asthma attack and chest infection

that is a medical diagnosis and not a nursing one.

So...impaired gas exchange related to a deficit in oxygenation ....Ventilation-perfusion imbalance and/or alveolar-capillary membrane changes.... as evidenced by the patients symptoms (which is your supporting evidence). Your patient must have the at least one the defining characteristics and related factors that give evidence that this is what the patient needs.