Notes on NDEC : NDEC Guidelines for Development and Evaluation of Diagnoses Column

This column describes the work of the Nursing Diagnosis Extension and Classification (NDEC) research team, which works in a collaborative agreement with NANDA to refine and extend the nursing diagnosis classification. Information in this column is for feedback and dialog only, and does not indicate NANDA acceptance of the content. NDEC contributions and recommendations will be processed by NANDA through its DRC Committee.

Postscript. A joint meeting of members from NANDA and NDEC occurred in Boston after this column was submitted. Present were: Dr. Dorothy Jones (President, NANDA), Drs. Marjory Gordon and T. Heather Herdman (Co-chairs, DRC Committee), and Dr. Martha Craft-Rosenberg (Co-principal investigator, NDEC). The purpose of the meeting was to clarify and strengthen the collaborative relationship between NANDA and NDEC.

NDEC's guidelines for development and evaluation of diagnoses vary somewhat from NANDA criteria for staging nursing diagnoses. For example, NDEC guidelines state that a nursing diagnosis label is a noun phrase, whereas NANDA's definition of a diagnosis label is “a concise term or phrase that represents a pattern of related cues” (NANDA, 1999, pp. 149–150). The people at the recent meeting determined that guideline development would occur jointly, along with a periodic review of those guidelines. The next issue of tills column will be devoted to highlighting the ongoing collaborative relationship between NANDA and NDEC. It is our hope that this format will stimulate dialogue among the readership.