Short answer: a NANDA-style diagnosis sentence has three parts — problem, etiology (related to) and evidence (as evidenced by). Risk statements drop the evidence clause because nothing has happened yet, readiness statements drop the cause because there is nothing to treat, and syndromes name a cluster instead of one symptom. Fifteen worked examples sit below, filterable by type.
Every scenario, cue and measurement on this page is an invented teaching example, and the statements follow the general NANDA style rather than any specific edition — your school's approved diagnosis list and its exact wording always win. Not clinical advice for a real patient.
The nursing diagnosis examples library
A diagnosis statement is the hinge between assessment and everything after it: the care plan argues from it, and a research question often grows from a problem that keeps reappearing on your unit. Each example below carries its type, an illustrative scenario, the finished sentence, and a note on the formatting.
Filter the bank by type and study one card properly rather than skimming all fifteen. When you find your shape, copy it, swap in your cues, and check the anatomy below.
Diagnosis statement studio
15 example statements · filter the bank, then assemble your own · picks are remembered in this browser.
Showing 15 of 15 diagnoses
Ineffective breathing pattern — post-operative opioids
Illustrative scenario: a 78-year-old on night one after a knee replacement, on an opioid pump.
Ineffective breathing pattern related to opioid sedation as evidenced by a respiratory rate of 8 with shallow breaths and a drowsy, delayed response to voice.
Why it works: the cause is a medication, but the response is nursing — hold the next dose per protocol, stimulate, reposition.
Acute confusion — overnight admission
Illustrative scenario: an 84-year-old admitted overnight after a fall at home.
Acute confusion related to a urinary infection and an unfamiliar ward as evidenced by attention that drifts mid-sentence and disorientation that worsens after dark.
Why it works: two related-to clauses are allowed when both causes need attention — the treatable one comes first. The cues form a pattern, not a single glance.
Excess fluid volume — heart failure admission
Illustrative scenario: a 71-year-old admitted with worsening leg swelling and breathlessness.
Excess fluid volume related to compromised regulatory mechanisms as evidenced by 2.2 kilograms gained in two days, pitting edema to the mid-calf and new crackles at both lung bases.
Why it works: the cause is a problem the nurse monitors rather than cures, and the evidence is three measured cues — the sentence reads like its own daily weights.
Constipation — after hip surgery
Illustrative scenario: a 66-year-old on day four after hip surgery, barely walking.
Constipation related to scheduled opioid doses and reduced mobility as evidenced by no bowel movement for four days, a distended abdomen and straining that produces hard stool.
Why it works: the two causes share one intervention bundle — fluids, walking, a bowel plan — so naming both earns the plan you would write anyway.
Insomnia — second night on telemetry
Illustrative scenario: a 59-year-old on a telemetry unit, monitored through the night.
Insomnia related to monitor alarms and hallway noise as evidenced by about three hours of broken sleep and heavy yawning through the morning assessment.
Why it works: the environment counts as a cause when nursing can change it — ear plugs, clustered care, a quieter room. One cue is subjective, one observable.
Impaired oral mucous membrane integrity — oxygen therapy
Illustrative scenario: a 45-year-old mouth-breathing around a face mask on day three of oxygen.
Impaired oral mucous membrane integrity related to mouth breathing and dehydration as evidenced by dry cracked lips, a coated tongue and reluctance to eat dry food.
Why it works: small problems still deserve precise names — the triad is visible in one oral exam, and every cause maps to a comfort intervention nursing owns.
Risk for falls — sedating sleep aid
Illustrative scenario: an 88-year-old on a sedating sleep aid, with a dim hallway to the bathroom.
Risk for falls related to sedating medication and blood pressure that drops on standing after three days in bed.
Why it works: no evidenced-by clause — nothing has happened yet, so there is nothing to cite. The risk factors name what the interventions will attack.
Risk for aspiration — day 1 after stroke
Illustrative scenario: a 74-year-old on day one after a small stroke, before the swallow screen comes back.
Risk for aspiration related to impaired swallowing — coughing with the first sips and a wet-sounding voice after the stroke.
Why it works: the cough and wet voice are evidence of the risk factor, not of aspiration, and the phrasing keeps that straight.
Risk for pressure injury — bed rest with incontinence
Illustrative scenario: a 92-year-old on ordered bed rest, skin intact, needing full help with toileting.
Risk for pressure injury related to immobility, moisture on the skin and reduced sensory awareness.
Why it works: the risk factors map one-to-one onto the domains of a standard risk score — the trace an instructor looks for before signing off a skin plan.
Risk for bleeding — new anticoagulant
Illustrative scenario: a 63-year-old starting therapeutic anticoagulation after clots were found, bruising easily.
Risk for bleeding related to therapeutic anticoagulation and frequent venipuncture during the treatment window.
Why it works: the drug is ordered by a physician, but guarding sites, watching output and teaching what to report are nursing moves — which is what makes this a nursing diagnosis.
Readiness for enhanced self-health management
Illustrative scenario: a 57-year-old three weeks into blood-pressure treatment, attending clinic on time.
Readiness for enhanced self-health management, as evidenced by a kept blood-pressure log and requests for written material about diet.
Why it works: no related-to clause — there is no problem to trace a cause to. The stated desire is itself the defining characteristic; adding a cause is the classic error.
Readiness for enhanced nutrition — first-year student
Illustrative scenario: a 19-year-old in the campus clinic, overwhelmed by the dining hall choices.
Readiness for enhanced nutrition, as evidenced by an expressed desire to build balanced meals and questions about reading food labels.
Why it works: the patient is stable and asking for more — a desire with observable backing, not a deficit — and the evidence can be as simple as what gets asked for.
Readiness for enhanced sleep — rotating shift worker
Illustrative scenario: a 33-year-old nurse on rotating shifts, asking how to recover between blocks.
Readiness for enhanced sleep, as evidenced by a stated desire to protect seven hours of sleep and questions about winding down after night shifts.
Why it works: the clinician can be the patient. A wellness statement still needs its defining characteristics written out — a bare desire is a wish.
Chronic pain syndrome — back pain past six months
Illustrative scenario: a 49-year-old with low-back pain past six months, referred after plain films came back clear.
Chronic pain syndrome, as evidenced by pain lasting past six months, guarded movement, disturbed sleep and a withdrawn mood.
Why it works: a syndrome names a recognized cluster — physical, functional and mood findings that travel together. The cluster is the evidence, and it justifies a broader plan.
Frail elderly syndrome — after discharge home
Illustrative scenario: a 90-year-old two weeks after returning home from the hospital.
Frail elderly syndrome, as evidenced by unintended weight loss, exhaustion, a slowed gait and weakened grip strength.
Why it works: naming the syndrome tells the team the decline is multi-system, so nutrition, mobility and safety planning belong in one bundle.
Statement builder
Pick a type, then pick the parts. The sentence assembles live as the slots fill — risk mode drops the evidence row on purpose, because risk statements do not carry one.
No evidenced-by clause on a risk statement — the risk factors do the proving.
Assembled statement (updates as you pick)
What a nursing diagnosis is: the three PES parts
Think of the sentence as three slots, each with one job. The P (problem) is a nurseable condition in two or three words — something nursing can monitor, treat or prevent, not the medical disease itself. The E (etiology) is the related to clause: a cause your interventions can change. The S (signs and symptoms) is the as evidenced by list: two or three cues quoted almost word for word from your assessment.
How you collect those cues borrows the discipline of a lab report: numbers first, interpretation later, units always. The S slot is also the part a grader checks first — it is the only part that proves you looked at a real patient.
Two types bend the shape. A risk diagnosis has no S — the problem does not exist yet, so the risk factors stand in as proof. A readiness diagnosis has no E — there is no cause to treat, and the stated desire is the finding. Everything else keeps all three slots.
The six diagnosis types at a glance
Four types are in daily use, and two older labels still appear on assignment sheets. The table shows the sentence shape, the moment to reach for it, the trap that costs the most marks. If your data set is thin, that points at a type — diagnosis choice is a data decision before it is a wording one, and the same habit matters when you are picking nursing research topics for a paper.
| Type | Sentence shape | Reach for it when | Classic trap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem-focused | Problem related to cause as evidenced by cues | The problem exists now and you can see its signs | Inventing symptoms the patient never showed |
| Risk | Risk for problem related to risk factors | No signs yet, but the factors are in place | Adding an as-evidenced-by clause with invented symptoms |
| Health-promotion | Readiness for enhanced X as evidenced by desire | The patient is stable and wants to raise the bar | Tacking on a related-to cause that does not exist |
| Syndrome | Named cluster as evidenced by several characteristics | A recognized cluster of findings travels together | Using it for one isolated symptom |
| Possible | Possible problem — data incomplete | You suspect, but cues conflict or are missing | Writing it as confirmed instead of flagging follow-up |
| Wellness | The older label for what many programs now call health-promotion | Your course sheet still uses wellness wording | Mixing the two labels in one paper |
The wording mistakes graders circle first
Most lost marks come from six habits. Each card shows the failing sentence on the front and the fix on the back — tap to flip. The pattern behind all six: every clause must name something nursing can change, prove or do. The same claim-and-evidence discipline is what a nursing case study grades later.
From cues to statement in four passes
The sentence is fast to write in order. Each pass takes one decision, and the last pass catches most errors — read the finished statement against your notes the way you would check a report writing format before handing it in.
List the cues
Split what the patient said from what you measured. Underline anything you could show another nurse on the chart — those are your S-slot candidates.
Name the problem in two or three words
Pick a nurseable condition from your course list, not the medical disease. Could nursing change it with an intervention we own?
Ask what causes it that nursing can change
That is your related-to clause. If the honest cause is a medical diagnosis, step one level down to the piece nursing treats — regulation, perfusion, mobility, knowledge.
Prove it, then check the type
Quote two or three cues after as-evidenced-by. Then check the type: risk statements drop that clause, readiness statements drop the cause, clusters get a syndrome name.
Where the statement goes next: care plans and research questions
Forward, the sentence becomes the spine of a care plan: the evidenced-by cues set the baseline outcomes are measured against, and the related-to factor is what every intervention attacks. The nursing care plan examples page carries whole plans the same way — cues, outcomes, interventions and rationales — worth reading right after this one.
Sideways, a diagnosis that keeps showing up on your unit is often a research question in disguise. The PICOT question guide turns a recurring problem into a searchable question, and the nursing research question examples library shows finished versions across the specialties. When the assignment is a full paper, the nursing thesis statement guide converts the same sentence into a defensible claim, the nursing research paper outline gives it a running order, and the sample nursing research paper shows the finished form. Still choosing a focus? The nursing research topics shortlist is full of problems that start at the bedside.
And when the assignment is your own path into the field, the reasoning behind every statement here — observation, cause, evidence — is the raw material a nursing personal statement draws on. The study guides hub keeps the shelf in one place.
Quiz: can you spot the formatting fault?
Five questions on the decisions the examples make. Wrong picks reveal the correct answer, so the quiz teaches as it scores.
1. A post-operative patient is drowsy on an opioid pump, breathing 8 and shallow. Which statement is complete and correctly formatted?
2. Your patient is on ordered bed rest and needs full toileting help, but the skin is intact. Which diagnosis is right?
3. What is wrong with: Readiness for enhanced nutrition related to an unhealthy diet?
4. Pain past six months, guarded movement, disturbed sleep and a withdrawn mood travel together. Why choose Chronic pain syndrome over plain Chronic pain?
5. The statement reads: Excess fluid volume related to heart failure as evidenced by edema. Which part is weakest?
Diagnoses done, but the paper around them keeps growing?
The statements take an evening; the assignment rarely stops there. If the deadline is closing in while the surrounding write-up is still a blank file, a quoted, deadline-bound expert writer can take the draft off your hands — the clinical reasoning stays yours.
The statement quality checklist
Run the sentence through eight taps before it goes near a care plan. The two that fail most often are invented evidence on a risk statement and a related-to that names a medical diagnosis.
0 of 8 checks
- The problem names something nursing can treat, monitor or prevent — not the medical disease
- Every related-to clause is a cause your interventions can actually change
- The evidenced-by cues quote your assessment almost word for word
- At least two cues back a problem-focused statement
- The risk statement carries no evidenced-by clause — risk factors do the proving
- The readiness statement carries no related-to clause — the stated desire is the evidence
- The wording is neutral: the patient reports, the nurse observes, nobody complains
- The type matches the data — existing problem, future risk, desire to improve, or a cluster
Frequently asked questions
What are the four types of nursing diagnoses?
Problem-focused, risk, health-promotion and syndrome — with possible and wellness as older or in-between labels some programs still teach. A problem-focused statement names a problem that exists now, a risk statement names one that could, a health-promotion statement names a desire to do better, and a syndrome names a cluster of findings that travel together. The library above holds examples of each shape.
What does PES stand for in a nursing diagnosis?
Problem, Etiology and Signs or symptoms. The problem is the nurseable condition, the etiology is the related-to cause that nursing can treat, and the signs or symptoms after as-evidenced-by are the proof. Risk diagnoses drop the S because nothing has happened yet, and readiness diagnoses drop the E because there is no cause to treat.
Can a nursing diagnosis have two related-to clauses?
Yes, when two treatable causes both need attention — write the one your interventions will attack first, then the second. Acute confusion related to a urinary infection and an unfamiliar ward is a fair example. The rule is not two clauses; it is that every clause names something nursing can change.
Do risk nursing diagnoses need an as-evidenced-by clause?
No. A risk describes a problem the patient does not have yet, so there are no signs and symptoms to cite — the risk factors do the proving. Writing invented symptoms after as-evidenced-by on a risk diagnosis is the most common formatting error graders circle.
How many cues should the evidenced-by part list?
Two or three, quoted almost word for word from your assessment. One cue can be a coincidence; two or three form a pattern a clinical instructor can trace from your assessment sheet to the diagnosis sentence. If a cue cannot be traced to something you observed or measured, it does not belong in the statement.
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