When asked to define the purpose of diagnostic reasoning, the best nur

When asked to define the purpose of diagnostic reasoning, the best nursing response is:

1. “Diagnostic reasoning is the foundation of the second step of the nursing process; Nursing Diagnosis.”
2. “The diagnostic reasoning process flows from the assessment process and includes decision-making steps.”
3. “Diagnostic reasoning includes data clustering, identifying client needs and for-mulating the diagnosis or problem.”
4. “Diagnostic reasoning involves using the assessment collected on a specific client to logically arrive at an appropriate nursing diagnosis.”

ANSWER

ANS: 4
Diagnostic reasoning is a process of using the assessment data gathered about a client to logically explain a clinical judgment, in this case a nursing diagnosis. The remaining options do not de-scribe purpose but rather identify outcomes of diagnostic reasoning.