Nursing Diagnosis

...I just dont get it...If I have a pt in pain I will admin pain pills not write about it...

Who will write the order for your patient's "pain pills"? Certainly not you...

U r missing the point

U r missing the point

Then articulate your point in plain English or professional nursing language.

However, to address what I believe MIGHT be your point. Yes, nursing diagnoses can be a bit awkward, but they serve as our profession's language and lead to NURSING interventions, which promote health along side (or sometime in spite of) medical interventions.

U r missing the point

Hahaha! Can't resist. Please do tell us the point?

As a nurse I can tell you I have never worked anywhere where nursing care plans are used. I agree that the nursing diagnosis format can be awkward and difficult to put into actual practice. However, nursing diagnoses aren't going away from the nursing school curriculum any time soon, so as a student you need to learn what your instructors expect and be able to tell them which nursing diagnosis is priority

Because critical thinking is a skill gained through experience for the most part, nursing diagnoses help students work through the fine points of managing a patient condition. Pain, by your example, is a complex part of nursing care. Because pain can refer to things more intricate than simply "patient X has a postoperative wound" pain can also be treated in a variety of ways by nurses that don't involve technical medical definitions. A patient can be given a prescribed pill yes, but they can also be repositioned, distracted, encouraged to move (post op knees/hips), encouraged through conversation, have pain reduced by decreasing anxiety related to medications, or simply set on a schedule of discussion about pain management adn reassessment.

Because it often takes coming into contact with these situations following a NANDA nursing diagnosis can help guide students down pathways that help them discover the critical thinking that they will do more naturally after a few years at the bedside.

This being said, most seasoned nurses no longer feel the nursing diagnosis is a valuable tool because they have the experience to see the critical thinking, without per se the "training wheels".

Also nursing isn't about completing tasks, it is about giving holistic care to an extremely vulnerable section of the population. I am not saying you have to hold hands, sing songs, and love every one of them, but you have to be able to look beyond the orders and scripts, and that takes practice.

Best of luck!

Tait

Tait described it perfectly. Nursing diagnoses and care plans are all about teaching how to "think like a nurse". Think about the nursing process. A nursing diagnosis is directly related to your assessment data. Once you have whittled down specific evidence of the diagnosis, you can formulate an individualized plan of care for this patient. You can tailor your NURSING care to their needs. It's not just following doctor's orders. You are a nurse, and give nursing care. It's holistic, it's critical thinking. I don't know how else to describe it. It's more than just a medical diagnosis.

Edit: I'm not a nurse yet. I'm still a student, but this post made me have to say something! I take nursing practice very seriously, and I am very proud of my chosen profession that I am going to enter.

I take it very seriously as well...I'd rather be doing and providing nursing care instead of writing care plans...someone else even posted that they have yet to have a job that used care plans... I have yet to complete a clinical at a facility that uses care plans and nursing diagnosis to treat patients

Lots of things to consider in this post; I will hope/assume you are a first semester NS. I will give my two cents but, in full disclosure, I have not used ND in quite awhile, and like everything a lack of use leads to atrophy.

1. ND do not come from medical dx. They are based on the nurses assessment of the patient.

2. ND describe what is going on with that particular patient at that particular time.

3. ND corresponds to appropriate nursing interventions and ultimately nursing outcomes.

4. There are many more ways to treat "pain" than giving a patient "pain pills".

5. You always have to "write about it" because if you don't document then...

So do you work as a nurse? Since you haven't used a ND in a while?...when I wrote "write" I meant write NDs and care plans I wasn't referring to documentation

Because critical thinking is a skill gained through experience for the most part, nursing diagnoses help students work through the fine points of managing a patient condition. Pain, by your example, is a complex part of nursing care. Because pain can refer to things more intricate than simply "patient X has a postoperative wound" pain can also be treated in a variety of ways by nurses that don't involve technical medical definitions. A patient can be given a prescribed pill yes, but they can also be repositioned, distracted, encouraged to move (post op knees/hips), encouraged through conversation, have pain reduced by decreasing anxiety related to medications, or simply set on a schedule of discussion about pain management adn reassessment.

Because it often takes coming into contact with these situations following a NANDA nursing diagnosis can help guide students down pathways that help them discover the critical thinking that they will do more naturally after a few years at the bedside.

This being said, most seasoned nurses no longer feel the nursing diagnosis is a valuable tool because they have the experience to see the critical thinking, without per se the "training wheels".

Also nursing isn't about completing tasks, it is about giving holistic care to an extremely vulnerable section of the population. I am not saying you have to hold hands, sing songs, and love every one of them, but you have to be able to look beyond the orders and scripts, and that takes practice.

Best of luck!

Tait

Couldn't agree more!