What is the actual difference between a medical diagnosis and a nursing diagnosis?
The nursing diagnosis is care-focused. The medical diagnosis is etiology (cause) focused. The nursing diagnosis identifies risks and needs of the patient both in the clinical setting (hospital, for example) and afterward (risks at home) that stem from the medical condition. The medical diagnosis is a phrase that identifies as nearly as possible the specific clinical entitiy that is causing illness, such as pulmonary tuberculosis. This doesn’t necessarily specify comorbid conditions (problems also present) such as instability from weakness and emaciation which exposes a patient to the risk of falling and sustaining further injury, or immune deficiency resulting from the TB making the activation of shingles more likely. The medical diagnosis specifies the pathology, such as respiratory insufficiency from advanced tuberculosis, but the nursing diagnosis will focus on the impact of the signs and symptoms on the patient and his/her caregivers. The nursing diagnosis might express the same pr
