subjectve and objective data

Subjective: what the patient tells you. "My stomach hurts", for example.

Objective: what you see, hear, feel. VS assessment, for example, is subjective.

I meant objective!!!

I stuck it there next to objective, and then called it subjective! I'm sorry for the confusion... you are correct, of course. VS is objective, and I meant to say so.

Too early in the morning for me, I guess!

this was discussed on this thread: https://allnurses.com/forums/f205/subective-objective-data-252736.html

objective data is anything you see, touch, hear, or smell about the patient with your own eyes, hands, ears or nose. where it gets tricky is when the patient or someone else beside the patient tells you things pertaining to the patient.

in general, when the patient reports to you what they see, touch, hear, smell or experience it is subjective data. pain is a perfect example. when a patient tells you they have a headache or backache this is subjective data. the patient reporting blurred vision is subjective data because the nurse cannot objectively experience that. when a patient tells you they "fell yesterday" that is subjective data because you weren't there and didn't experience it yourself. when they show you the big bruise on their knee from the fall, the bruise you see is objective data.

now, what is tricky is when you are reviewing a chart and reading another care provider's charting and you read that the patient had been seen moaning in pain. that would be considered objective data because it was experienced by someone other than the patient. or, a mother comes in with her infant and reports that the baby has been crying inconsolably, had 5 watery diarrhea stools in the past 3 hours and a fever of 104. that is considered objective data because the reporter of the facts is not the patient.