This thread already way out of control, so what the hell....
Nursing diagnoses are basically a way to categorize/label the problems that you identify as you assess a patient and of course based on the identified problem, your interventions are going to be directed towards that problem with specific outcomes anticipated.
It's a mental process that has been translated into "NANDA prose" on paper, but as fab4fan said, it's not not formatted that way in your thinking. Nursing diagnoses are heavily focused on in nursing school when students are learning how to assess a patient, what are you looking for, what do you call it and what do you do about it, etc. It just becomes automatic with experience. As it is though, (and I can't speak for all hospital/facility policy), nurses are still expected to make up and update care plans that are worded in NANDA terms.
And the general consensus is that printing and "individualizing" these care plans is pretty much busywork to satisfy the auditing machines. I will say that I work with a nurse who also contracts as a legal consultant and she says they are sometimes brought into court.
