The author reports the findings from a qualitative study of diagnostic data obtained and interpreted by hospital nurses on the coping of adult patients and their families. Clinical data taken from taped interviews were transcribed and analyzed using grounded theory and analytic induction techniques. The data were then compared with diagnoses accepted for testing by NANDA. The phenomena described by the research did not match the NANDA constructs for individual and family coping problems. Nurses' assessments of coping response, however, fit within transactional theory. The use of the term "ineffective" to qualify coping was generally avoided. Ineffective coping, suggesting an outcome or product of coping, was not often considered applicable to the coping responses nurses found appropriate at specific times in specific situations.