Nursing Diagnosis How to memorize?

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Im in my first year nursing school. ADN. Do you have to memorize the nursing dianoses NANDA? How do you know how to diagnose what when their are so many do you know each one by heart or look at the different domains? What kind of nursing diagnosis would be given to someone who smokes?

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What kind of nursing diagnosis would be given to someone who smokes?

for someone who smokes would you use "ineffective health maintenance related to lack of knowledge of progression of substance abuse and its effects"

this is one in a chapter about addictive behaviour

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Specializes in Peds, PICU, Home health, Dialysis.

I don't think there is a need to memorize them, unless you are tested on them. We are not tested on nursing diagnoses, with the exception of a case study given to us and picking the correct diagnosis on a multiple choice exam. There are hundred's of nursing diagnoses and wouldn't see the point in having to memorize them.

During my clinical this past semester, I asked a staff nurse about a nursing diagnosis for my patient and she gave me a blank stare and said "I have not used a nursing diagnosis since nursing school".

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Cardiac.

In our school we haven't had to memorize them. I keep a card with all of them with me at clinical. After you've written some care plans you'll know many of the most common ones even if you can't remember the precise wording.

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I don't think there is a need to memorize them, unless you are tested on them. We are not tested on nursing diagnoses, with the exception of a case study given to us and picking the correct diagnosis on a multiple choice exam. There are hundred's of nursing diagnoses and wouldn't see the point in having to memorize them.

During my clinical this past semester, I asked a staff nurse about a nursing diagnosis for my patient and she gave me a blank stare and said "I have not used a nursing diagnosis since nursing school".

I wonder is nursing diagnosis just for school? That would be nice!

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No...not just for school. I see nursing diagnoses in all the charts at every hospital ive been to for clinicals.

I wonder is nursing diagnosis just for school? That would be nice!
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Specializes in NICU, Psych, Education.

A lot of times in the real world we aren't as technical or official about it as students are required to be. On my unit, you'll see all kinds of NDx rules broken, but it seems to be okay as long as the general idea comes across.

You might try starting with memorizing a few important ones that you may use frequently. I work with babies, so mine would probably be different than yours, but I don't see any need to memorize them all unless it's required. Honestly, are any of us going to whip out that Disturbed energy field dx on the unit this week?

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Can there be more than one diagnosis per patient. This might be a dumb question but Im trying to get a clear understanding.

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Specializes in NICU, Psych, Education.

Definitely can. A lot of your patients will have diseases like diabetes and end up with issues in multiple systems (heart, GI, skin integrity, renal, neuro/sensory, etc).

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When doing your careplans you will probably be required to come up with a few different nursing diagnoses.

We have never had to memorize them...I believe your interventions are more important than the actual nursing diagnosis, so don't get too hung up on that.

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Specializes in med-surg/or/ambulatory/geriatric psyc.
A lot of times in the real world we aren't as technical or official about it as students are required to be. On my unit, you'll see all kinds of NDx rules broken, but it seems to be okay as long as the general idea comes across.

You might try starting with memorizing a few important ones that you may use frequently. I work with babies, so mine would probably be different than yours, but I don't see any need to memorize them all unless it's required. Honestly, are any of us going to whip out that Disturbed energy field dx on the unit this week?

Isn't the whole concept of nursing dx to give us a basis of evaluation of our patients? My understanding is that it helps those who are not necessarily used to assessing the condition of someone in order to know step to take next to help them. Am I wrong when I believe that they are not set in stone, that they are the beginning to a means of knowing how to treat a patient's specific conditions within our scope of practice?

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Of course they are not set in stone. Your plan of care is always changing.

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