Nursing diagnoses of NANDA-I taxonomy for the elderly in a long-term institution

Objective: To identify nursing diagnoses of the NANDA-I Taxonomy in institutionalized older adults. Method: A descriptive study, conducted with 116 older adults from a long-term institution, carried out based on the identification of nursing diagnoses of the NANDA-I Taxonomy in an instrument based on the theoretical model of Basic Human Needs and validation by experts with support in Risner’s diagnosis reasoning. Results: 1,555 nursing diagnosis titles were indicated for the 116 older adults, with a mean of 13.4 diagnoses per individual. After excluding repetitions, 39 different diagnosis titles were obtained. Among them, 26 (66.7%) are titles of real diagnoses, 13 (33.3%) are titles of risk diagnoses and are classified in 8 of the 13 domains of the NANDA-I taxonomy. The most frequent nursing diagnoses were the following: risk for falls (94.8%); frail elderly syndrome (91.3%), and dysfunctional family processes (90.5%). Conclusion and implications for the practice: The profile of the nursing diagnoses identified can contribute to the increase of sensitive indicators to the nursing practice, with the planning and implementation of care measures directed to the real needs of institutionalized older adults, impacting on autonomy, independence and, consequently, on quality of life.