What it means
A change the client notices and describes. Symptoms are subjective data: the nurse learns about them by asking. Pain, nausea, itching, tiredness and feeling short of breath are symptoms. Findings that the nurse can see, hear, feel or measure are called signsineSomething about a person's body that another person can see, hear, feel or measure, such as a fever, a rash or a fast pulse.Full entry .
For the nurse
Record a symptom in the client's own words where you can, and ask about onset, location, how long it lasts, what it feels like, what makes it better or worse and how bad it is (a 0 to 10 scale for pain).
In a chart
"Client states, 'I feel like the room is spinning.'"
Remember it
A symptom is something the client says; a sign is something you can see.
At a glance
| Spanish | síntoma |
|---|---|
| Also written | symptoms |
Easy to confuse with
sign
Something about a person's body that another person can see, hear, feel or measure, such as a fever, a rash or a fast pulse.
Related terms
assess
To gather information about a client by looking, listening, asking, measuring and examining.
sign
Something about a person's body that another person can see, hear, feel or measure, such as a fever, a rash or a fast pulse.
sign and symptom
The findings of an illness taken together: what can be seen or measured (signs) and what the person feels and reports (symptoms).