A female patient is complaining of pain in her right hip. The nurse records in the medical record that the patient reported pain on walking and that it was worse at night. What type of information has the nurse gathered?

• A. Subjective data
• B. Objective data
• C. Assessment data
• D. Nursing diagnoses

Answer: (A)

The main concept is distinguishing what the patient reports from what you observe. When the patient says she has pain in the right hip, especially that it occurs with walking and is worse at night, that information comes from her experience and description. That is subjective data—symptoms and experiences reported by the patient.

Objective data would be things you can see or measure, such as a limited range of motion observed on exam, limp, tenderness upon palpation, swelling, or imaging results. Assessment data is the nurse’s integrated interpretation of both subjective and objective data to form conclusions about the patient’s condition. Nursing diagnoses are the clinical judgments about how the patient’s health condition is affecting them, derived after analyzing the data.

So the information described is best categorized as subjective data because it’s the patient’s own report of her pain.