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A Descriptive Study: Defining Characteristics of the Nursing Diagnosis Cardiac Output, Alterations In: Decreased
Author(s) -
Dahon Joanne
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
image: the journal of nursing scholarship
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.009
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1547-5069
pISSN - 0743-5150
DOI - 10.1111/j.1547-5069.1985.tb01638.x
Subject(s) - medical diagnosis , perception , nursing diagnosis , nursing , data collection , cognition , nursing care , health care , population , medicine , nursing practice , psychology , psychiatry , pathology , environmental health , statistics , mathematics , neuroscience , economics , economic growth
The defining characteristics of the nursing diagnosis “Cardiac output, alterations in: decreased” were gathered from VNA discharge records dated from January 1,1980, to December 31,1981. From this population 100 records with the diagnosis were selected. Defining characteristics were the subjective and objective patient cues recorded by the nurse when the diagnosis was made. The 12 defining characteristics proposed by the Fifth National Conference on the Classification of Nursing Diagnoses were used as a framework for the data collection tool. The researcher found 180 defining characteristics and clustered them into Cordon's 11 Functional Health Patterns. The 3 most frequently used patterns were health perception/health maintenance, activity/rest, and cognitive/perceptual. Out of 100 occasions, the defining characteristics of the National Conference were not used 69 times. The author recommends repeating this study in other settings, especially in acute care settings, to clarify educational issues for staff and the usefulness of this diagnosis in clinical practice.