In the scenario where a patient undergoing abdominal radiation has liquid stool and clean, intact skin, the error in the selected nursing diagnosis is best described as which of the following?

• A. Incorrect clustering of data
• B. Wrong diagnosis
• C. Condition is a collaborative problem
• D. Premature ending assessment

Answer: (B)

A nursing diagnosis must reflect what you actually assessed in the patient. In this scenario, the patient has liquid stool, which points to diarrhea, while the skin is clean and intact, showing no current skin breakdown. If the chosen nursing diagnosis claimed impaired skin integrity or a skin-related problem, that label doesn’t fit the observed data. That mismatch is what makes the error a wrong diagnosis: the diagnosis does not align with the actual findings. It’s not about finishing the assessment too early, nor about clustering data incorrectly or labeling it as a collaborative problem. The important step is to match the diagnosis to what the data show, so a diarrhea-related diagnosis would be more appropriate than one describing skin impairment.