Clinical nursing documents

Author: Chief Editor: Liu Jingwei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-10-01
Features: The book provides an introduction to how to improve the writing skills of nursing students to meet the needs of clinical nursing work, which is an urgent issue in current nursing education. Clinical Nursing Writing primarily introduces basic writing knowledge, the formats, content, and methods for various common writing styles in clinical nursing work, including special care records, ward handover reports, nursing case records, and nursing research papers. The book also compiles commonly used medical terms in writing. This book can serve as a textbook for nursing school students and a reference for nurses when writing.
Excerpt:
II. How to Achieve Clear Concepts
(1) The Connotation and Denotation of a Concept
Every concept has two aspects: connotation and denotation. The connotation of a concept refers to its content, which is the sum of the unique attributes it reflects. The denotation of a concept refers to the scope of things it represents. For example, the concept of "treatment" refers to the use of various therapies to eliminate diseases, reduce pain, and restore health. Its denotation includes symptomatic therapy, supportive therapy, conservative therapy, surgical therapy, and comprehensive therapy. The relationship between the connotation and denotation of a concept is inversely proportional: the larger the connotation, the smaller the denotation, and vice versa. Understanding this relationship allows us to limit the denotation of a concept by increasing its connotation. This is reflected in word choice and sentence structure, where adjectives can be added before nouns and adverbs before verbs to make the concept more specific. For example, in the sentence, "Specialty nurses must strengthen their learning of nursing knowledge and continuously improve their specialty nursing skills," the concept "nursing knowledge" has a broad denotation and is not clear enough. Adding the word "specialty" makes the meaning clearer. If concepts are not clear in speech or writing, it can lead to grammatical errors. For example:
① In nursing work, the head nurse has very strict requirements for us. The concepts "strict" and "rigorous" both contain the meaning of "strict," but "strict" refers to a harsh attitude, while "rigorous" refers to strictly adhering to standards without relaxation. Here, "rigorous" should be used instead of "strict," as "strict" is inappropriate in this context.
② The hospital has added service items and improved service attitudes. In this sentence, "improve" should be changed to "enhance." "Improve" generally refers to changing poor conditions, while "enhance" means further improving on the existing basis.
(2) Relationships Between Concepts
Objective things are interconnected, and the concepts that reflect them are also interconnected. The relationship between concepts is reflected both in their connotation and denotation, but formal logic primarily studies the relationship between concepts from the perspective of their denotation. According to their nature, the relationships between concepts can be divided into two major categories: compatible relationships and incompatible relationships.
1. Compatible Relationships
Two concepts have non-exclusive denotations, with at least some overlap between them. The relationship between these two concepts is called a compatible relationship. Compatible relationships can be further divided into identity relationships, intersection relationships, and subordination relationships.
(1) Identity Relationship: Two or more concepts have entirely overlapping denotations, reflecting the same object from different perspectives. This can also be called a coincidence relationship or complete identity relationship (Figure 2-1). For example, the concepts "Florence Nightingale" and "the founder of modern nursing" reflect the same thing from different angles, though their connotations may differ, their denotations are completely identical. Another example is "Fan Ye" and "the author of the Biography of Hua Tuo," whose denotations also overlap. Since concepts with an identity relationship have identical denotations, referring to them interchangeably in speech and writing does not violate logical requirements. Sometimes, we intentionally use such substitutions to avoid repetitive word usage when referring to a concept multiple times, thereby enhancing the rhetorical effect of speech and writing.
(2) Intersection Relationship: Two or more concepts have a denotation that partially overlaps and no more than partially overlaps (Figure 2-2). For example, the concepts "nurse" and "party member" have an intersection relationship. Some nurses are party members, some are not, some party members are nurses, and some are not. Only a portion of the population are both nurses and party members, i.e., nurse party members. Other examples include "doctor" and "woman," and "foreign-language magazine" and "nursing magazine," where the relationship between each pair of concepts is an intersection relationship. While concepts with an intersection relationship reflect different types of things, they are not mutually exclusive. We cannot treat them as mutually exclusive concepts.
(3) Subordination Relationship: One concept's denotation includes the entire denotation of another concept. The relationship between these two concepts is called a subordination relationship. The concept with the broader denotation is called the superordinate concept, and the concept with the narrower denotation (i.e., the one included) is called the subordinate concept (Figure 2-3). For example, the concepts "student" and "nursing student" have the entire denotation of "nursing student" included within that of "student." Here, "student" is the superordinate concept, and "nursing student" is the subordinate concept. Other examples include "medical worker" and "nurse," and "school" and "health school," where the relationship between each pair of concepts is a subordination relationship. When using subordination concepts, we must not misunderstand the relationship between the whole and the part as a subordination relationship. The subordinate concept is an independent class under the superordinate concept, but the part is not an independent class under the whole. Understanding the subordination relationship of concepts allows us to distinguish their denotations when using them, ensuring accurate word choice.
2. Incompatible Relationships
Two concepts have mutually exclusive denotations with no overlap. The relationship between these two concepts is called an incompatible relationship. Incompatible relationships can be further divided into parallel relationships, contradictory relationships, and opposing relationships.
(1) Parallel Relationship: The relationship between different subordinate concepts under the same superordinate concept is called a parallel relationship. Their denotations exclude each other and do not overlap. As shown in Figure 2-4, D is the superordinate concept, and A, B, and C are subordinate concepts. For example, "medical worker" is a superordinate concept, and "doctor," "nurse," "medical technologist," and "pharmacist" are subordinate concepts under it, with a parallel relationship between them.
(2) Contradictory Relationship: Two concepts have mutually exclusive denotations, and the sum of their denotations equals the denotation of their superordinate concept. The relationship between these two concepts is called a contradictory relationship. As shown in Figure 2-5, concepts A and B have a contradictory relationship between their denotations. That is, their denotations do not overlap, are mutually exclusive, and are both contained within C, with the sum of A and B's denotations equaling C's denotation. In C, there are no other intermediate concepts except A and B.