Defining characteristics of the nursing diagnosis impaired urinary elimination in infants: integrative review

Abstract

Investigating child urinary elimination enables one to identify nursing diagnoses and appropriately plan care actions. Regarding the nursing diagnosis (ND) of impaired urinary elimination, as identified by NANDA-I, gaps can be found in its defining characteristics (DC) when infants are involved, due to particularities of how children in this age group show this diagnosis. The present study aimed to identify the clinical manifestations reported in the literature concerning infants with urinary elimination disorders. An integrative literature review was carried out, whose guiding question was: “What clinical manifestations are infants with urinary elimination disorders likely to present?” CINAHL, Cochrane, PubMed, and LILACS databanks were consulted, identifying 621 articles. Taking the inclusion and exclusion criteria into account, the sample consisted of 21 articles, which were read and classified according to their evidence level. Among the defining characteristics identified in the integrative review, and that are contemplated by NANDA-I, urinary retention and dysuria proved to be the most prevalent. Other clinical manifestations were also found in the literature as likely to be observed in infants with urine elimination disorders, such as weak urinary stream, interruption of urination, crying when urinating, hematuria, and malodorous urine. Results suggest that other DCs should be studied in an attempt to include these in NANDA-I taxonomy so as to better illustrate the condition of infants with the nursing diagnosis of urinary elimination disorder.