Nursing Diagnosis book recommendations

nitole12 · Jan 7, 2015

In my program we use Ackley's Nursing Diagnosis Handbook, and I really like it. You could look and see if it's something you'd like.

Nursing Diagnosis Handbook: An Evidence-Based Guide to Planning Care, 10e: 9780323085496: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com

I like it because in the beginning it has common disorders with common nursing diagnoses for each of them. Then it goes into detail on the diagnoses.

Hope you find one that you like! :)

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jan 7, 2015

Three, and they will carry you forever. Your faculty will be impressed and your classmates in awe.

To make a nursing diagnosis, you must be able to demonstrate at least one "defining characteristic." Defining characteristics for all approved nursing diagnoses are found in the NANDA-I 2015-2017 (current edition). $29 paperback, $23 for your Kindle at Amazon, free 2-day delivery for students. NEVER make an error about this again---and, as a bonus, be able to defend appropriate use of medical diagnoses as related factors to your faculty. Won't they be surprised!

If you do not have the NANDA-I 2015-2017, you are cheating yourself out of the best reference for this you could have. I don't care if your faculty forgot to put it on the reading list. Get it now. Free 2-day shipping for students from Amazon. When you get it out of the box, first put little sticky tabs on the sections:

1, health promotion (teaching, immunization....)

2, nutrition (ingestion, metabolism, hydration....)

3, elimination and exchange (this is where you'll find bowel, bladder, renal, pulmonary...)

4, activity and rest (sleep, activity/exercise, cardiovascular and pulmonary tolerance, self-care and neglect...)

5, perception and cognition (attention, orientation, cognition, communication...)

6, self-perception (hopelessness, loneliness, self-esteem, body image...)

7, role (family relationships, parenting, social interaction...)

8, sexuality (dysfunction, ineffective pattern, reproduction, childbearing process, maternal-fetal dyad...)

9, coping and stress (post-trauma responses, coping responses, anxiety, denial, grief, powerlessness, sorrow...)

10, life principles (hope, spiritual, decisional conflict, nonadherence...)

11, safety (this is where you'll find your wound stuff, shock, infection, tissue integrity, dry eye, positioning injury, SIDS, trauma, violence, self mutilization...)

12, comfort (physical, environmental, social...)

13, growth and development (disproportionate, delayed...)

Now, if you are ever again tempted to make a diagnosis first and cram facts into it second, at least go to the section where you think your diagnosis may lie and look at the table of contents at the beginning of it. Something look tempting? Look it up and see if the defining characteristics match your assessment findings. If so... there's a match. CONGRATULATIONS! You made a nursing diagnosis! :anpom: If not... keep looking. Eventually you will find it easier to do it the other way round, but this is as good a way as any to start getting familiar with THE reference for the professional nurse.

Two more books to you that will save your bacon all the way through nursing school, starting now. The first is NANDA, NOC, and NIC Linkages: Nursing Diagnoses, Outcomes, and Interventions. This is a wonderful synopsis of major nursing interventions, suggested interventions, and optional interventions related to nursing diagnoses. For example, on pages 113-115 you will find Confusion, Chronic. You will find a host of potential outcomes, the possibility of achieving of which you can determine based on your personal assessment of this patient. Major, suggested, and optional interventions are listed, too; you get to choose which you think you can realistically do, and how you will evaluate how they work if you do choose them.It is important to realize that you cannot just copy all of them down; you have to pick the ones that apply to your individual patient. Also available at Amazon. Check the publication date-- the 2006 edition does not include many current NANDA-I 2015-2017 nursing diagnoses and includes several that have been withdrawn for lack of evidence.

The 2nd book is Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) is in its 6th edition, 2013, edited by Bulechek, Butcher, Dochterman, and Wagner. Mine came from Amazon. It gives a really good explanation of why the interventions are based on evidence, and every intervention is clearly defined and includes references if you would like to know (or if you need to give) the basis for the nursing (as opposed to medical) interventions you may prescribe. Another beauty of a reference. Don't think you have to think it all up yourself-- stand on the shoulders of giants.

RookieRoo · Jan 7, 2015

GreenTea, you're amazing. Ordering now. Thank you!

CU_hopeful · Jan 17, 2017

GreenTea, you're amazing. Ordering now. Thank you!

RookieRoo, which book did you order? And did you like it? Any advice? I didn't see a member with the username GreenTea, so I'm lacking the amazing info you got. :) I'm about to start writing Care Plans in about two more weeks and I'm petrified.

AliNajaCat · Jan 18, 2017

Believe that GreenTea may have been an old member quoted by RookieRoo, now nurseprnrn. Looks like good advice to me.

JessieMari · Jan 18, 2017

RookieRoo, which book did you order? And did you like it? Any advice? I didn't see a member with the username GreenTea, so I'm lacking the amazing info you got. :) I'm about to start writing Care Plans in about two more weeks and I'm petrified.

I'm not sure which book OP picked but I'm currently using Nursing Care Plans: Nursing Diagnosis and Intervention by Gulanick, Meg; Myers, Judith L.

I really like this one because it has the care plans divided by diagnosis and/or systems. I bought it on Kindle because I can put it on multiple devices and it's easy to search and find what I'm looking for. Also, it provides ongoing assessments, rationales, therapeutic interventions, risk factors and outcomes...just a wealth of information. Hope that helps!