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Knowledge Deficit: Not a Nursing Diagnosis
Author(s) -
Jenny Jean L.
Publication year - 1987
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.1547-5069.1987.tb00004.x
Subject(s) - medical diagnosis , nursing diagnosis , focus (optics) , taxonomy (biology) , resolution (logic) , medicine , psychology , nursing , computer science , artificial intelligence , pathology , physics , botany , optics , biology
This paper challenges the conceptual validity of the approved nursing diagnosis “Knowledge Deficit (specify).” The concept is examined in relation to four criteria for legitimate nursing diagnoses: appropriate conceptual focus, necessary diagnostic attributes, theoretical validity and clinical utility. Using these criteria, the author concludes that knowledge deficit is not a legitimate diagnosis and suggests that it can be dropped from the taxonomy. This would encourage clinicians to focus on patients' Problem state using lack of knowledge as a risk factor, etiology or defining characteristic. Patient outcomes would then be defined in terms of state resolution rather than knowledge increment alone.