Final answer:
Potential defining characteristics of activity intolerance include weakness, crisis risk upon minor stress, and vital sign changes. Contributing factors may include work overload, physical strain, and maladjustment to exercise, while subjective assessment tools like RPE are used to measure symptom severity.
Step-by-step explanation:
The potential defining characteristics for the nursing diagnosis of "activity intolerance" include symptoms such as weakness, an inability to tolerate even minor stress without experiencing crises, and vital sign changes like weight loss, profuse sweating, increased heart rate, which may lead to the risk of death.
Factors contributing to activity intolerance can encompass work overload, intense physical work, patient-related concerns, interpersonal issues with medical staff, and maladjustment to exercise patterns. Subjective methods, like the Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE), are often used to assess the severity of symptoms since they are influenced by personal experience and may not be precisely measurable by clinical standards.
Special attention should be paid to symptoms like balance and posture problems, repetitive motor behaviors, difficulty planning and executing tasks, poor judgment, or personality changes. Each of these symptoms can serve as an indicator of the patient's capacity to engage in activities and should be considered when planning care and interventions designed to improve activity tolerance.