Diagnostic categories and patterns of human responses were identified in neurologic patients, assisted by nursing undergraduate students who attributed to them nursing diagnoses, according to NANDA's Taxinomy I. The majority of attributed diagnoses refer to the patterns Exchange, Move and Communicate and the minority to the patterns Choose, Receive and Feel. The non attribution of other diagnoses probably occurred due to the lack of emphasis given to them and to students' inexperience. Faculty determinations to develop in the students skills of analysis and synthesis confirm this positive experience.
attribution of nursing diagnoses to neurologic patients; teaching of nursing diagnoses; nursing process
