OBJECTIVE Identifying Nursing Diagnoses of fatigue, activity intolerance and decreased cardiac output in hospitalized patients with heart failure and verifying the association between the defining characteristics and the Nursing Diagnoses. METHOD A longitudinal and prospective study that followed hospitalized patients with heart failure for three weeks. The data collected through interviews and physical examinations were sent to expert nurses for diagnostic inference. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were carried out. RESULTS Of the 72 patients, 68.0% were male and presented the nursing diagnosis of decreased cardiac output (62.5%) in the first week, reducing to 52.8% and 38% in the second and third weeks, respectively. Fatigue only appeared in one patient. Activity intolerance was the diagnosis that had the greatest discrepancy among the experts. Decreased cardiac output was associated to the defining characteristics: dyspnea, edema, jugular venous distension and reduced ejection fraction during all three weeks of evaluation. CONCLUSION Decreased cardiac output was more prevalent in hospitalized patients with heart failure, and the associated defining characteristics were determining factors for this nursing diagnosis.
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