The CCC System of nursing outcomes (version 2.5) consists of 528 nursing outcomes (176 nursing diagnoses with three outcome qualifiers – improved, stabilized or deteriorated – used to modify the 176 diagnoses, totaling 528 nursing outcomes). They are used to depict both expected outcomes/goals and actual outcomes.
Definition
The expected outcome qualifiers represent the goal of patient care and are documented in the future tense as will improve, will stabilize or will deteriorate, whereas the actual outcomes qualifiers represent whether the goals were met or not met and are documented in the past tense as improved, stabilized or deteriorated.
Description
The CCC of nursing outcomes were derived from the nursing diagnoses/patient problems that were collected on admission and again on discharge and were considered to be another facet of the diagnoses narrative statements. As a result, the expected outcomes were created by using one of the three qualifiers as the proposed goals of the care on admission and the actual outcomes evaluated as the results of the care on discharge. This process makes it possible to measure and/or evaluate the care process and the interventions that provide the evidence for measuring the patient care outcomes.
Please see the three outcome qualifiers by code, outcome and definition below. One of the three outcome qualifiers must be combined with one of the 176 nursing diagnoses to provide the goal or expected outcome of the diagnoses on admission and to provide the actual outcome on discharge.
Outcomes: Expected and actual
Definition
The CCC of 528 nursing outcomes uses three outcome qualifiers to depict the three possible conditions/stages for each diagnosis. One expected outcome qualifier is required for each of the 176 nursing diagnoses (528 possible outcomes) to document the goal of patient care and one actual outcome qualifier (528 possible outcomes) is required to document the result of the care.
The three qualifiers were derived from the diagnostic statements that were collected on admission and on discharge and that were considered to be another facet of the statement. As a result, the expected outcome and/or actual outcome was created by using one of the three qualifiers as the expected outcome or goal on the admission of a patient and evaluated as the actual outcome on discharge, making it possible to measure and/or evaluate the care process. The interventions and action types provide the evidence for measuring the outcomes.
| Code | Outcome | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Improve(d) | Condition changed and/or recovered |
| 2 | Stabilize(d) | Condition did not change and required no further care to maintain condition. |
| 3 | Deteriorate(d) | Condition changed and worsened |