A nurse is using assessment data gathered about a patient and combining critical thinking to develop a nursing diagnosis. What is the nurse doing?
a. Assigning clinical cues
b. Defining characteristics
c. Diagnostic reasoning
d. Diagnostic labeling
ANS: C
Diagnostic reasoning is defined as a process of using the assessment data gathered about a patient to logically explain a clinical judgment, in this case a nursing diagnosis. Defining characteristics are assessment findings that support the nursing diagnosis. Defining characteristics are the subjective and objective clinical cues, which a nurse gathers intentionally and unintentionally. The nurse organizes all of the patient's data into meaningful and usable data clusters, which lead to a diagnostic conclusion. Diagnostic labeling is simply the name of the diagnosis.
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____________________ is the inability to speak or understand.
Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).
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