Objective

To determine the prevalence of diverse nursing diagnostics in hospitalized older patients with pressure ulcers, identifying the real, potential, and health-related ones, as well as syndrome by health functional pattern.

Methods and material

This is a transversal and descriptive study with a sample of older patients in different services in a hospital of Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico. An assessment instrument was designed following the Functional Patterns of Marjory Gordon. The E-cuidados® best nursing practices platform was used for the analysis.

Results

36 relevant diagnostics were identified: 23 (63.9 %) were problem-centered; 10 (27.8 %) were risk related; and 3 (8.3 %) were health promoting. The most affected functional patterns were: Activity-Exercise; Nutrition-Metabolism; and Values-Beliefs.

Conclusions

This study supports the need to highlight the importance of adopting preventive and integral attention strategies, as well as improving the attention planning process in order to avoid the deterioration of health conditions of older patients.