Which term represents objective measures of goals?

• A. Nursing diagnoses
• B. Outcomes
• C. Planning
• D. Evaluation

Answer: (B)

Outcomes are the observable, measurable results used to judge whether goals have been met. They translate each goal into concrete targets you can assess, such as symptom relief, vital signs in a target range, or lab values returning to normal. In the nursing process, you identify a problem (nursing diagnosis), plan by selecting specific outcomes (and how to achieve them), implement interventions, and then evaluate by comparing the patient’s actual status to the expected outcomes. This makes outcomes the objective measures you rely on to determine success. Nursing diagnoses identify what’s wrong, planning sets the intended results, and evaluation assesses whether those results were achieved using the predefined outcomes.