Nursing diagnoses and interventions for a child after cardiac surgery in an intensive care unit

To describe the nursing clinical judgment as a basis for ND identification and development of a NIC treatment plan for a child after cardiac surgery under intensive care.

A case study with data retrospectively collected from charts.

Three nurses identified NANDA-I diagnoses and NIC interventions. A 6-month-old child submitted to cardiac surgery, requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in the postoperative period. Four main nursing diagnoses were identified, towards which ten interventions were directed. The proposal of interventions to respond to the priority human responses of the child was optimized by the use of standard terminologies. Every nursing diagnosis was supported by diagnostic indicators; every intervention was scientifically supported.

There must be an expectation that nurses address not only physiological responses, but also those within psychosocial domains.