Nursing Diagnosis

Hmmmm not the easiest concept to grasp...well for me, because it's not a medical diagnosis, you can't really say "this guy has diabetes", you can say "this guy has anxiety related to (r/t) to his diagnosis of diabetes, or has a knowledge deficit r/t the new nutritional plan for his newly diagnosed diabetes". Since this is on my test tomorrow I've decided to 'explore this'. Here's what it is definitely not and why:

Pt (patient) is a 26 weeks pregnant skinny crack addicted skank ho who doesn't care about the welfare of her baby.....

ok, here's why it's wrong:
pregnant....medical diagnosis, could read as: Ineffective Denial r/t diagnosis of pregnancy (26 weeks) AEB (as evidenced by) pt denying that she is pregnant and only presented to ER for stomach pain.

skank...a bit of a biased opinion of the nurse...maybe should read: hygiene deficit r/t lack of housing.

skinny...not a professionally nursing type description, it should read: Imbalanced nutrition: Less than body requirements

Ho....nurse has not seen pt exchange sexual favors for crack and/or money, nor has the pt claimed to be a Ho or a prostitute of any kind, again, nurse's biased coming through in the diagnosis.

Crack addicted...only if pt mentioned she partakes in drugs, and again addict is most likely a medical diagnosis, so should read more like: Defensive coping AEB the pt admitted to the use of illegal narcotics for relaxation purposes.

okay, so here how it should read:

Ineffective Denial r/t diagnosis of pregnancy (26 weeks) AEB pt denying that she is pregnant and only presented to ER for stomach pain. Hygiene deficit r/t lack of housing. Imbalanced nutrition: Less than body requirements. Defensive coping AEB the pt admitted to the use of illegal narcotics for relaxation purposes.

I can't decide which one sounds funnier and frankly can't imagine saying EITHER!

So far it's been fun, learned how to move patients today, rolling them, lifting them, transferring them....of course if this had been real I think we may have broken a neck or two....one person started moving before the other counted to three and such...but better learning here with healthy necks then in the hospital.

I have a test tomorrow (on the nursing process, including diagnosis) wish me luck, will need it. I was talking to DH about having a bit of anxiety r/t to knowledge deficit (hahaha) and he said I shouldn't worry about failing....I paused, "I'm not worried about failing, I'm worried about getting a C"

I was serious and he laughed!
the gall

okay, I laughed too as soon as I realized what I had said.
I'd like to say I'm going to go study now, but really since I was up at 4 this morning, I'm going to bed.
sweet dreams!