Does the nursing diagnosis identify medical problems experienced by the patient?

• A. Yes
• B. No
• C. Sometimes it does
• D. Only for chronic conditions

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is that a nursing diagnosis describes how the patient is responding to a health problem, not the disease itself. It focuses on the patient’s symptoms, risks, and functional status that nurses address with care actions, while the medical problem is identified by the physician.

That’s why the correct choice is that nursing diagnoses identify patient responses rather than the medical problem. Nursing diagnoses might state, for example, that a patient has acute pain, impaired gas exchange, or risk for falls—these are about how the patient is experiencing or could experience health issues, and they guide nursing interventions.

The other options don’t fit: saying the nursing diagnosis identifies the disease would confuse nursing with medical diagnosis; claiming it’s sometimes true isn’t accurate because the nursing diagnosis consistently centers on patient responses; and claiming it’s only for chronic conditions ignores that nursing diagnoses apply to acute as well as chronic situations and risks.