interventions to prevent post-operative complications in COPD patients, the first step that must be taken is a complete assessment of the patient. This assessment is most likely best accomplished by using Gordon's (1998) Function Health Pattern classification for assessment developed for The North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA). What Gordon (1998) observed is that a diagnosis is a conceptual model for interpreting a set of observations in order to provide organization for understanding these observations as they relate to diagnosis of any kind. In this regard, NANDA (1997) states that a nursing diagnosis is:
a clinical judgment about individual, family, or community responses to actual or potential health problems/life processes. Nursing diagnoses provide the basis for selection of nursing int
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