Evaluation of NANDA nursing diagnoses of healthcare college final year students during the clinical application of the mental health and disease nursing course

The aim of this descriptive study was to evaluate the NANDA nursing diagnoses of Pamukkale University Denizli Healthcare College final year students for the patients they undertook the care of and to determine the aims and interventions relevant to these diagnoses.The study universe consisted of all Pamukkale University Denizli Healthcare College final year students who were continuing their education during the 2009-2010 educational year and took the Mental Health and Disease Nursing course (84). The universe was studied before selecting a sample. The internal medicine, surgery, cardiovascular surgery, chest disease, orthopedics-urology, and physical treatment and rehabilitation clinics were chosen for the consultation liaison psychiatry (CLP) while the AMATEM Center of the Denizli State Hospital and the Pamukkale University Psychiatry clinics were chosen as the student clinical application areas. The data were collected by evaluating the 136 nursing care plans prepared by the students and the data collection forms the students had used for nursing care during the 2009-2010 autumn semester. The nursing care was evaluated according to the symptom, etiology and problem (SEP) format, using the diagnostic list containing the NANDA diagnoses that had previously been provided to the students, and the number and percentage distributions were determined.The patients cared for at the CLP clinics by the students included in the study had been admitted for surgical interventions at a rate of 29.8% and cancer at 28.6% while those in the psychiatry clinics had been admitted for psychosis or alcohol-substance abuse at a rate of 16.7%. The students included in the study had determined 36 nursing diagnoses in 136 cases. The 6 most common diagnoses were infection risk at 34.5%, disturbance of sleep pattern at 33.3%, anxiety at 25.0%, activity intolerance at 20.2%, inadequate personal coping at 16.7% and trauma risk at 13.1% at the CLP clinics, and disturbed sleep pattern at 15.5%, inadequate personal coping at 14.3%, anxiety at 14.3%, changes in family processes at 10.7%, self-care deficit at 10.7% and social interaction disturbance at 10.7% at the psychiatry clinics.The students showed low rates of being able to determine nursing diagnoses according to the SEP format and to plan, administer and evaluate result criteria accordingly. We recommend frequent demonstration of the nursing process via case studies starting from the first year of nursing training, providing a similar interpretation of the nursing process in all main nursing lectures by using a common language,