Diagnostics in nursing - between teaching and everyday professional life

Many people and patients are not aware that, in addition to the many visible tasks in their profession, nurses are also involved in the field of diagnostics. This involves both making diagnoses and carrying out the treatments derived from them.

In teaching, the scope and wealth of detail of the various diagnoses in the field of nursing is only becoming apparent: in the textbook "I care. Pflege" textbook, which is now in its third edition, they are a recurring topic on over 1500 pages. Franziska Preiss, a research assistant at RWU, worked with Nadine Münnich as an expert advisor for an entire chapter of the book. The two authors compiled the relevant nursing diagnosis tables for the subject area of "Nursing care for people with special illnesses".

These tables are based on the methods and formulations of NANDA, short for North American Nursing Diagnosis Association International, and ENP, the European Nursing care Pathways. The corresponding formulations generally differ in the way they are formulated and not in terms of content - while the ENP formulations consist of complete sentences, the NANDA nursing diagnoses are formulated more like keywords.

The care diagnoses offer all those involved a common technical language and thus avoid misunderstandings during care and when communicating with relatives or doctors. In addition, the care measures carried out are based on the individual care diagnoses and are therefore targeted and needs-oriented. Routine treatments that may not offer any added value for the patient are therefore avoided. Ultimately, the nursing diagnoses form a foundation on which decisions can be made in a transparent and comprehensible manner so that they can also be reviewed retrospectively.

Accordingly, the presentation and explanation of nursing diagnoses in textbooks such as "I care. Pflege" to serve as a tool for future nurses during and after their training.