NANDA's Definition of Nursing Diagnosis: A Plea for Conceptual Clarity

Abstract

hls. Miers is assistant ~I O~K S S O I -a t thr University of Alabania School 0 1 Nursing, University of Alahania ;it Rirtiiinghani. She teaches advaticed cardiovascrrlai-nursing atttl coordinates the issues in adv;inced nursing practice course in thr Master's program. She is also a tloctoral student at the University of Alabama School o f Nursing. and her dissertation interest is the application o f the Roy Adaptation Model t o the deductive developnient of a taxonomic structure for huinan r-esponses t o health conditions. Ms. Miers is a fortner inemher of the Board of Directors of the American Assoriation of Critical-Care Nurses. . Because of the working nature ofthe definition, ineiit1)c.i.s arid nonnienihers of the Association were invited t o judge the merits and faults of the definition and to recommend areas needing further debate, analysis, or rncdification. The purpose of this article is t o apply priiiciples and rilles of definition to an analysis of the working definition o f nursing diagnosis :is adopted by the NANDA General Asseinhly. In presenting this ani~lysis. concerns and questions regitrding the conceptual, logical. and granirnatic:i1 clarity o f essential elements (e.g., clinical judhment; individual. fantily. o r community responses: actual or potential healtli prohlems; and actual o r POtential life processes) in the definition are posed; and, where appropriate. suggestions for clarification are offered. Further debate, research, and clinical testing is requested in an attenipt t o improve NANDA's veilj impcwcant contribution to the development o f nursing practice theory.

Factors Associated With Nursing Diagnosis Utilization in Canada

“…N u r s i n g diagnosis comprises a system of diagnostic categorization and a description of the cognitive processes used in malung clinical judgments (Gordon, 1994;Miers, 1991). Several definitions of nursing diagnosis as a system of diagnostic categorization have evolved since its inception in the 1970s (Mills, 1991).…”

Reviving the notion of “experience” as a basis for nursing diagnoses

“…A response is a reaction (an action, an emotion, etc.) triggered by some kind of stimulus (a motive, a force, a situation) (Miers, 1991). In the case of nursing diagnoses, the responder is a subject (an individual, a caregiver, a family, a group, or a community) and the stimulus responded to is a health condition or a life process.…”

A resposta psicossocial de impotência em pacientes no pós-operatório de cirurgia cardíaca

“…O diagnóstico de impotência foi aceito para testes clínicos pela North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) em 1982 (1) . Um diagnóstico de enfermagem é um julgamento clínico das respostas do indivíduo, da família ou da comunidade aos processos vitais ou aos problemas de saúde atuais ou potenciais, os quais fornecem a base para a seleção das intervenções de enfermagem, para atingir resultados, pelos quais o enfermeiro é responsável (1)(2) . A impotência foi definida pela NANDA como o estado no qual o indivíduo tem a percepção de que o que ele pode fazer não altera, significativamente, um resultado; a percepção da falta de controle sobre uma situação corrente, ou sobre um acontecimento imediato (1) .…”