title: Altered thought processes and sensory/perceptual alterations: a critique.
abstract: Concerns about the clinical usefulness of altered thought processes and sensory/perceptual alterations--and the resulting avoidance of these two diagnoses--led to a study to determine how expert nurses differentiate between the diagnoses and how the diagnoses are used in practice. The authors developed a questionnaire and mailed it to 128 members of NANDA who had identified themselves as experts in the diagnoses; sixty-six (52%) responded. Conclusions were that the defining characteristics for altered thought processes were cognitively oriented and those for sensory/perceptual alterations were perceptually oriented. The overlap of defining characteristics, such as change in problem-solving ability, makes differential diagnosis a difficult task.
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Hancock
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Munjas
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000451:nursing*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009733:Nursing Diagnosis / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000451:nursing*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D012678:Sensation Disorders / Q000451:nursing*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires