Accessible summary
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The use of a standardized nursing language enhances nursing quality. The nursing diagnosis classification of North American Nursing Association-International (NANDA-I) considers all judgements about individual, family, or community responses to actual or potential health problems/life processes for which nurses are accountable. The nursing diagnoses provide the basis for planning nursing interventions. The NANDA classification is widely used in the daily work of nurses, also in adult inpatient psychiatry.
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The present study identifies nursing phenomena representing actual or potential health problems/life processes in journal articles about the psychiatric adult inpatient nursing care. These phenomena are compared with the NANDA-I classification to elucidate how well this classification covers the realities of nursing work in the mentioned setting.
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The NANDA classification describes essential phenomena on the level of labels and definitions. However, some apparently important nursing phenomena are not covered by the labels or definitions of NANDA-I. Furthermore, there are phenomena that seem covered in the NANDA-I classification as defining characteristics, related factors or associated risk factors. There is a need for further researches to complete the NANDA-I classification for the nursing work in the adult inpatient setting.
Abstract
Little is known about the question if the nursing diagnosis classification of North American Nursing Association-International (NANDA-I) describes the adult inpatient psychiatric nursing care. The present study aimed to identify nursing phenomena mentioned in journal articles about the psychiatric inpatient nursing care and to compare these phenomena with the labels and the definitions of the nursing diagnoses to elucidate how well this classification covers these phenomena. A search of journal articles took place in the databases MedLine, PsychInfo, Cochrane and CINAHL. A qualitative content analysis approach was used to identify nursing phenomena in the articles. Various phenomena were found in the articles. The study demonstrated that NANDA-I describes essential phenomena for the adult inpatient psychiatry on the level of labels and definitions. However, some apparently important nursing phenomena are not covered by the labels or definitions of NANDA-I. Other phenomena are assigned as defining characteristics or as related factors to construct nursing diagnoses. The further development of the classification NANDA-I will strengthen the application in the daily work of psychiatric nurses and enhance the quality of nursing care in the inpatient setting.