Diagnostic labels of NANDA-I in a southern region of Spain.
Rafael González-Rodríguez, María de Los Ángeles Martelo-Baro, Pilar Bas-Sarmiento
PMID 28614433WHAT IT FOUND
Nursing records from 9,928 care episodes most often labelled anxiety, willingness to improve knowledge and risk of infection.
Anxiety was labelled in 15% of cases and appeared in all age groups.
Key findings
01Anxiety was the most frequent NANDA-I label, identified in 1,488 cases (15%), and appeared among the top three in all age groups.
02Willingness to improve knowledge was the second most frequent label overall and the first in adolescents and adults.
03Risk of infection was recorded in 1,127 care cases, with 31.8% diagnosed in health centres and 68.2% in the hospital.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study counted care episodes, not individual people, so it cannot show how many patients were affected or whether one person had several diagnoses. It covered only 2014 in one municipality, so it cannot show trends over time or apply to other settings. Because it was cross-sectional, it cannot show whether the labels were stable, changed over time, or predicted outcomes. Results depend on how completely and accurately nursing staff coded NANDA-I diagnoses in the records. The authors note that low numbers of labels per case may reflect incomplete documentation, workload or limited training, not necessarily low patient need.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the 15% anxiety figure as a true population prevalence of anxiety disorders. It is the frequency of a nursing label recorded in care episodes from one municipality in one year, and the study did not test diagnosis accuracy or outcomes.