Nursing diagnosis
A nursing diagnosis may be part of the nursing process and is a clinical judgment about individual, family, or community experiences/responses to actual or potential health problems/life processes. Nursing diagnoses foster the nurse's independent practice (e.g., patient comfort or relief) compared to dependent interventions driven by physician's orders (e.g., medication administration). Nursing diagnoses are developed based on data obtained during the nursing assessment. A problem-based nursing diagnosis presents a problem response present at time of assessment. Risk diagnoses represent vulnerabilities to potential problems, and health promotion diagnoses identify areas which can be enhanced  to improve health. Whereas a medical diagnosis identifies a disorder, a nursing diagnosis identifies the unique ways in which individuals respond to health or life processes or crises. The nursing diagnostic process is unique among others. A nursing diagnosis integrates patient involvement, when possible, throughout the process. All nurses must be familiar with the steps of the nursing process in order to gain the most efficiency from their positions. In order to correctly diagnose, the nurse must make quick and accurate inferences from patient data during assessment, based on knowledge of the nursing discipline and concepts of concern to nurses . NANDA International. "NANDA-International", formerly known as the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association is the primary organization for defining, researching, revising, distributing and integrating standardized nursing diagnoses worldwide. NANDA-I has worked in this area for more than 45 years to ensure that diagnoses are developed through a peer-reviewed process requiring standardised levels of evidence, definitions, defining characteristics, related factors or risk factors that enable nurses to identify potential diagnoses in the course of a nursing assessment. NANDA-I believes that it is critical that nurses are required to utilise standardised languages that provide not just terms (diagnoses) but  the embedded knowledge from clinical practice and research that provides diagnostic criteria (definitions, defining characteristics) and the related or etiologic factors upon which nurses intervene. NANDA-I terms are developed and refined for actual (current) health responses and for risk situations, as well as providing diagnoses to support health promotion. Diagnoses are applicable to individuals, families, groups and communities. The taxonomy is published in multiple countries and has been translated into 18 languages; it is in use worldwide. As research in the field of nursing continues to grow, NANDA-I continually develops and adds new diagnostic labels. Nursing diagnoses are  a critical part of ensuring that the knowledge and contribution of nursing practice to patient outcomes are found within the electronic health record and can be linked to nurse-sensitive patient outcomes. Global. The ICNP (International Classification for Nursing Practice) published by the International Council of Nurses has been accepted by the WHO (World Health Organisation) family of classifications. ICNP is a nursing language which can be used by nurses to diagnose. Structure. The NANDA-I system of nursing diagnosis provides for four categories and each has 3 parts: diagnostic label or the human response, related factors or the cause  of the response, and defining characteristics found in the selected patient are the signs/symptoms present that are supporting the diagnosis. Process. The diagnostic process requires a nurse to use critical thinking. In addition to knowing the nursing diagnoses and their definitions, the nurse becomes aware of defining characteristics and behaviors of the diagnoses, related factors to the diagnoses, and the interventions suited for treating the diagnoses. Examples. The following are nursing diagnoses arising from the nursing literature with varying degrees of authentication by ICNP or NANDA-I standards.