One of the most frequent questions we get goes something like
this….”My patient has Congestive Heart Failure. What is the
highest priority/most likely nursing diagnosis?” There is no
right answer, because it’s the wrong question! Assigning a
nursing diagnosis based on a medical diagnosis skips several
steps essential to optimal and safe patient care. A medical
diagnosis is only one piece of the puzzle; it does not by
itself, provide the depth of information necessary to make an
accurate nursing diagnosis. WHAT IS A NURSING DIAGNOSIS? Maybe
the easiest thing is to start with what a nursing diagnosis is
NOT. A nursing diagnosis is NOT: - Merely a label that you make
up that “sounds like” it explains what you are seeing in your
patient. - Another way of explaining the medical diagnosis, or
of renaming a medical condition. - Something that “goes with a
particular medical diagnosis”. Nursing diagnosis is defined as
“a clinical judgment about individual, family, or community
experiences/responses to actual or poten