More than half (388) of the 651 dyspnea assessment forms the nurses used contained incomplete responses. Nurses noted that patients were “unable to respond” to one or more
questions on 42 (6%) of the forms. In 165 (25%) of the forms, one or more questions were left blank, and in 181 (28%), a handwritten “N/A” response was given for one or more questions (see Table 1). Because “N/A” could be used as an abbreviation for “not applicable,” “not available,” or “no answer,” we were.