How do you write a risk for nursing diagnosis?

An at-risk nursing diagnosis is an assessment, by a nurse, of conditions that the patient is likely to be vulnerable to. The at-risk diagnosis should state what condition the patient is at risk for, followed by a list of pertinent risk factors.

Patients who are at-risk for a condition cannot already have been given a nursing diagnosis for the condition. For example, a patient cannot be in pain and also be at risk for pain.

Nursing diagnoses are not the same thing as medical diagnoses. Doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants perform medical diagnoses. Nurse diagnoses involve evaluation of conditions that nurses treat, such as pain.