BACKGROUND: In the nursing process proposed by Wanda Horta in the 1960s, the term nursing diagnosis was replaced by the term nursing problems. The term nursing diagnosis returned to the Brazilian literature at the end of the 1980's. Since then, nurses are becoming more and more familiar with the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) classification of nursing diagnosis. OBJECTIVES: To describe the attitudes of professional nurses and nursing students regarding nursing diagnoses, as well as to evaluated the association between professional nurses and nursing students' attitudes regarding their knowledge and use of nursing diagnoses to improve patient care. METHODS: A descriptive and correlational design was used. Data were collected from 81 subjects from three universities in Parana State, Brazil, using the Positions on Nursing Diagnosis (PND) Portuguese version. RESULTS: Nursing students had higher scores on the PND than professional nurses. Higher scores on the knowledge and use of nursing diagnoses were associated with higher scores on PND. Nursing students also had more favorable attitudes toward nursing diagnosis than professional nurses. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggest that nursing students had a better attitude, more knowledge, and used nursing diagnoses more often than professional nurses.
Nursing diagnosis; Students; Evaluation; Attitud
