Implementation of nursing diagnoses. An overview.

Widespread interest in nursing diagnosis, its incorporation in most nursing textbooks, and the increasing amount of published research suggest that nurses are finding nursing diagnoses useful in clinical reasoning and judgment. Implementation is important for this reason and, as discussed, for professional, legal, and ethical reasons. Additional reasons for implementation relate to activities supporting or evaluating nursing care. Consistency of the nursing focus is important in both direct and indirect care activities. As nursing diagnosis-based planning of care is implemented, consideration has to be given to the use of diagnosis-based documentation systems, quality assurance programs, staffing, and other support or evaluative activities. Great progress has been made in the classification of nursing diagnoses since the 1970s but much still remains to be done. The role of the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association in this work has been briefly summarized.