Which term best describes the formal statement of an actual or potential health problem that nurses can legally and independently treat?

• A. Nursing diagnosis
• B. Diagnostic label
• C. Etiology
• D. Medical diagnosis

Answer: (A)

Nursing diagnoses are the formal statements that describe a patient’s actual or potential health problems that nurses can legally and independently treat. They focus on how the patient responds to a health condition or life process and guide independent nursing interventions within the nurse’s scope of practice. This statement becomes the basis for planning and evaluating nursing care. For example, a nursing diagnosis might be “Acute pain related to surgical incision as evidenced by patient reporting pain of 7/10 and guarding.” The other terms don’t fit because a diagnostic label is just the disease name assigned by a clinician, an etiologic factor is the cause (often part of the nursing diagnosis structure but not the problem statement on its own), and a medical diagnosis is the physician’s label for a disease requiring medical treatment.