Abstract
Objective: Identify studies on the defining characteristics of Nursing Diagnoses outlined for hospitalized newborns. Methods: Integrative Literature Review conducted in the Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS), Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS) and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases with Science Descriptors of Health: “Diagnóstico de Enfermagem” AND “Recém-Nascido”; in the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE) database, the controlled terms Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) were used: “Nursing Diagnosis” AND “Infant, Newborn”. Inclusion criteria: English and Portuguese languages, primary articles, published between 2010-2020, available in full, that met the proposed objective. Results: In the seven selected studies, nursing diagnoses were related to the themes: breastfeeding, hyperthermia, jaundice, respiratory problems, hypothermia, blood glucose and heart diseases, grouped in the thematic categories “Accuracy of defining characteristics for the development of nursing diagnoses for the newborn” and “Characteristics refined conceptual definers for clinical practice in newborn care”. Final Considerations: The proper nursing diagnosis is related to the nurse's expertise in examining the newborn, identifying signs and symptoms, outlining the defining characteristics, directing to appropriate interventions and quality of care for hospitalized newborns.