ABSTRACT
Aims: The purpose of this study was to clarify the thought processes of nurses in performing nursing assessment. Methods: The participants comprised 20 nurses working in a surgery ward. Patient information on a case, including presenting illness, vital signs, and other findings from admission until 09:00 on the day after surgery, was shown to the participants. After reading the case report, the nurses presented their assessments. Based on these assessments, nursing problems, patient strengths, and patient information were identified. Nursing problems and patient strengths were described by various words and sentences, and were classified according to similar content. Results: The number of nursing problems ranged from 1 to 8 and patient strengths from 0 to 6 for each nurse. The mean number of nursing problems was 4.7 ± 1.8, and the mean number of patient strengths was 2.2 ± 1.4. The main nursing problems were respiratory complications, postoperative wound pain, and anxiety, and the main patient strength was family cooperation. Patient information as evidence of respiratory complications included history of smoking, chest radiography results, postoperative vital signs, sputum color and properties. Patient information as evidence of postoperative wound pain included complaints of pain, epidural anesthesia, use of patient-controlled anesthesia and its effect. Patient information indicating family cooperation included family structure, preoperative visits by family, and presence of family while providing informed consent. Significant differences were seen in the number of nursing problems and patient strengths according to cognitive style. Conclusions: Postoperative complications were the nursing problems most commonly extracted by nurses. To clarify nursing problems and patient strengths, the nurses made assessments on the basis of information such as patient complaints, vital signs, and test results. However, extracted nursing problems and patient strengths were diverse, suggesting that nursing problems and patient strengths as determined by nurses differed between individual nurses.