Question

A nursing student expresses some confusion about identifying the appropriate nursing diagnosis for a specific client. Which of the following responses by the clinical instructor is most instructional?

1. After defining the client's symptomatology, eliminate those nursing diagnoses that are not supported by the database.
2. Assess your client and then select the nursing diagnosis that has the greatest number of observable defining characteristics.
3. After assessing the client, compare their symptoms carefully to the defining characteristic of the nursing diagnosis in order to support or eliminate it as applicable.
4. With experience you will become skilled at identifying the defining characteristics of a nursing diagnosis in your client. Until that time use a nursing diagnosis book to help in the selection process.

Answer 1

3. After assessing the client, compare their symptoms carefully to the defining characteristic of the nursing diagnosis in order to support or eliminate it as applicable. The most instructional response is to assess the client's symptoms and compare them to the defining characteristics of nursing diagnoses to select the appropriate diagnosis.

Step-by-step explanation:

The most instructional response would be option 3: After assessing the client, compare their symptoms carefully to the defining characteristic of the nursing diagnosis in order to support or eliminate it as applicable.

When identifying the appropriate nursing diagnosis for a specific client, it is important to carefully assess the client's symptoms and compare them to the defining characteristics of the potential nursing diagnoses. This process helps to eliminate nursing diagnoses that are not supported by the client's symptoms and allows for the selection of the most appropriate diagnosis.

Using a nursing diagnosis book can be helpful, especially for inexperienced nursing students who may not yet have the skill to identify the defining characteristics of a diagnosis. However, with experience, the ability to identify appropriate nursing diagnoses will improve.