Differences in models and diagnostic reasoning between Medicine and Nursing: a critical comparison

What is it about?

A diagnostic process involves identifying a condition, seeking causes, establishing a prognosis and a treatment. Notably, a clinical diagnosis is a judgment focused on the present, aiming to cluster events associated with a disease. Diagnostic judgment focuses on the past when it attempts to isolate possible causes, and towards the future when it indicates prognoses and treatments. The paper suggests ways to differentiate nursing diagnosis from medical diagnoses, discussing ontology and abductive reasoning for doctors and nurses.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

We have critically investigated the taxonomy-based NANDAdiagnostic system, which is meant to be practice oriented but lacks the epistemological requirements for a proper diagnostic judgment. Our discussion underscores that a nursing diagnosis should be much more than a mere descriptive algorithm to be applied uncritically. For it to enhance the quality of clinical decision making, a nursing diagnosis demands critical thinking, sound logical reasoning, and acknowledgement of the adequacy of (causal) hypotheses. We have pointed out that algorithmic and taxonomic decision making tools can help to support decision making processes in the health care setting providing scientific and clinical knowledge are well founded, but they are no substitute for critical thinking when there are diverging hypotheses or ambiguous signs

Perspectives