Swedish Registered Nurses' incentives to use nursing diagnoses in clinical practice.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to describe Registered Nurses' incentives to use nursing diagnoses in clinical practice.


BACKGROUND
The use of nursing diagnoses is scarce in Swedish patient records. However, there are hospital wards were all nurses formulate and use nursing diagnoses in their daily work. This leads to the question of what motivates these nurses who do use nursing diagnoses in clinical practice.


METHODS
A qualitative descriptive design.


METHODS
A purposeful sampling of 12 Registered Nurses was used. Qualitative interviews to collect data and a content analysis were performed.


RESULTS
Five categories were identified: identification of the patient as an individual and as a whole, a working tool for facilitating nursing care, increasing awareness within nursing, support from the management and influence on the professional role. The principle findings of this study were: (i) that the Registered Nurses perceived that nursing diagnoses clarified the patient's individual needs and thereby enabled them to decide on more specific nursing interventions, (ii) that nursing diagnoses were found to facilitate communication between colleagues concerning patient care and thus promoted continuity of care and saved time and (iii) that nursing diagnoses were perceived to increase the Registered Nurses' reflective thinking leading to a continuous development of professional knowledge.


CONCLUSIONS
The present findings suggest that the incentives to use nursing diagnoses originate from effects generated from performing a deeper analysis of the patient's nursing needs. Further research is needed to test and validate the usability and consequences of using nursing diagnoses in clinical practice. Motivating factors found in this study may be valuable to Registered Nurses for the use and development of nursing diagnoses in clinical care. Moreover, these factors may be of relevance in other countries that are in a similar situation as Sweden concerning application of nursing diagnoses.
Axelsson
Lena
L
Sophiahemmet University College, Stockholm, Sweden. lena.axelsson@sophiahemmethogskola.se
Björvell
Catrin
C
Mattiasson
Anne-Cathrine
AC
Randers
Ingrid
I
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006694:Holistic Health; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D009042:Motivation; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology; D009731:Nursing Audit; D009733:Nursing Diagnosis / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009737:Nursing Records; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D010358:Patient Participation; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden; D013850:Thinking; D017748:Time Management