Validating nursing diagnoses: an approach to reinforce nursing process with BSN-completion students.

An eight-week medical-surgical clinical rotation was used to expose RN students to the process of validating nursing diagnoses. Although limited in scope, students gathered data from the literature, nurse experts, and clinical observations to support defining characteristics of selected nursing diagnoses. Because of the response from students and agency nurses, a more comprehensive experience, to be offered as a nursing elective, is being planned.