Learning of the process of nursing diagnosis by nursing students. An experiment at the San Miniato School

In order to guarantee the quality of health care, it is necessary that the care focus on patients' needs. This requires that care givers possess diagnostic competency skills that allow them to quickly identify the patients' needs, using suitable methods and instruments. In Italy, the development of diagnostic competency skills is generally overlooked in nursing schools; this is due in part to the lack of applied and experimental educational models in teaching and training. During the 1992-1993 year, a didactic teaching intervention to assist students in the acquisition of diagnostic skills was tested. The sample included all students in the third year class of the San Miniato nursing school. The Zanotti's model "Nursing as a stimulus for health-harmony" was used as framework. The purpose of the research was to test: (a) validity and reliability of a new needs' analysis model; (b) the effectiveness of a didactic method for the acquisition of such a model by the students. Students enhanced their skills in data assessment and shifted from the medical perspective to the nursing perspective in using those data to evaluate the patient's status.