After visiting with the client, the nurse documents the assessment dat

After visiting with the client, the nurse documents the assessment data. Both objective and sub-jective information have been obtained during the assessment. Which of the following is classi-fied as subjective data?

1. “Client appears sleepy”
2. “No physical distress noted”
3. “Abdomen soft and non-tender”
4. “States feels anxious and tense”

ANSWER

ANS: 4
Subjective data are clients’ perceptions about their health problems. Feeling anxious and tense is information that only the client can provide. Objective data are observations or measurements made by the data collector. In this example, the data collector is making the observation that the client appears sleepy. “No physical distress noted” is an example of objective data because it is an observation made by the data collector. “Abdomen soft and non-tender” is an example of objec-tive data because it is an observation made by the data collector, not a client’s perception.