Diagnostic Content Validity of Nursing Diagnoses

Abstract

A random sample of 600 registered professional nurses in New York State were asked to rate the relevance of The North American Nursing Diagnosis Association's list of defining characteristics for the six most frequently used nursing diagnostic categories on Likert‐type scales. The diagnostic categories were Alteration in Comfort: Pain; Anxiety; Impaired Physical Mobility; Impaired Skin Integrity: Actual; Self‐Care Deficit; and Knowledge Deficit. Based on 148 usable responses, the results indicated critical and supporting characteristics and total content validity scores for each of the six diagnostic categories. The only defining characteristic that did not attain at least supporting status was “Regretful” for the diagnosis of anxiety.