Evaluation of Nurses’ Perceptions of Nursing Diagnoses and Their Opinions Regarding the Application of Nursing Process

AIM: This study aimed to evaluate nurses’ perception of nursing diagnoses and their opinions regarding the application of nursing process and to determine the factors affecting them. METHOD: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 320 nurses who worked at a foundation university hospital between October and December 2017. The Nurse’s Information Form and Nursing Diagnoses Perception Scale were used to collect the research data. The scale included expressions reflecting nurses’ perceptions about the use, usefulness, aims, results, objectives, and limitations of nursing diagnoses. RESULTS: A total of 51.2% of the nurses participating in the study had a bachelor’s degree, and the average age was 25.36 ± 4.83 years. More than half of the nurses (50.9%) stated that they had difficulty in the assessment stage of the nursing process and that they diagnosed the risk of infection most frequently (74.4%). The nurses’ mean total score on the survey was 2.68 ± 0.44 (2–4). There was a statistically significant relationship between the total mean score of the scale with the sex, education level, and the belief that the nursing process should be used (p < .001; p < .001; p < .05). CONCLUSION: The nurses’ perception of nursing diagnoses was at a moderate level. Positive perception of nursing diagnoses could improve nursing quality by enabling nurses to focus on care.