Evaluation of First Year Nursing Students’ Care Plans-Nursing Diagnosis and Nursing Intervations

A nursing diagnosis is a clinical judgment about an individual, a family or a community's responses to actual and potential health problems/life processes. Nursing diagnoses provide the basis for selection of nursing interventions to achieve outcomes for which the nurse is accountable. This is very important issue for quality of nursing care from first year to all study life. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the nursing diagnoses of university first year students for the patients they undertook the care of and to determine interventions relevant to these diagnoses.

The study universe consisted of Adiyaman University Nursing School first year students who were continuing their education during the 2014–2015 educational year and took the Fundamentals of Nursing Course. The universe was studied witout selecting a sample. The chest disease, neurology and internal medicine clinics were chosen as the student clinical internship areas. The data were collected by evaluating the 63 nursing care plans prepared by the students and the data collection forms the students had used for nursing care.

The patients cared for at the chest disease, neurology and internal medicine clinics by the students included in this study. The students included in the study had determined 19 nursing diagnoses in 63 cases. The 5 most common diagnoses were insufficient respiration and pain at 11.6%, infection risk at 10.7%, sleep pattern at 9.1%, anorexia at 8.2%, risk of fallow at 7.8 for all clinics. The most used nursing intervations was evaluate respiratory rate and depth, evaluate pain, follow the infection signs, evaluate noise for sleeping and keep the room clean.

The students’ ability to determine nursing diagnoses and nursing intervations was at the middle level. To develop the students’ skill in implementing nursing process at the conclusion of every system they need to be given sample cases with related diagnoses that will help them improve their ability to use nursing diagnosis and interventions relevant to these diagnoses.