Objective: to describe the nursing clinical judgment as a basis for ND identifi cation and development of a NIC treatment plan for
a child after cardiac surgery under intensive care. Method: a case study with data retrospectively collected from charts. Results:
Three nurses identifi ed NANDA-I diagnoses and NIC interventions. A 6-month-old child submitted to cardiac surgery, requiring
extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in the postoperative period. Four main nursing diagnoses were identifi ed, towards which ten
interventions were directed. The proposal of interventions to respond to the priority human responses of the child was optimized
by the use of standard terminologies. Every nursing diagnosis was supported by diagnostic indicators; every intervention was
scientifi cally supported. Conclusion: there must be an expectation that nurses address not only physiological responses, but also
those within psychosocial domains.