Three Phases of Research in Validating Nursing Diagnoses

Abstract

The purposes of this three-phase project consisting of concept analyses, nurse expert validation. and client validation were: identification of nursing definitions of anxiety and fear, validation of defining characteristics of the diagnoses by nurse experts, differentiation of the diagnoses by nurse experts, and validation of the nursing diagnosis anxiety by clients. The nurse expert sample consisted of 233 professional nurses, and the client sample consisted of 69 adult clients. Results include agreement on two critical defining characteristics ofanxiety by nurse experts and clients, the differentiation of anxiety andfearby nurse experts, the suggestion ofafear-anxiety syndrome in the literature and by nurse experts and clients, and the suggestion by nurse experts that anxiety be defined using levels ofanxiety. Recommendationsfor changes in the nursing diagnosis anxiety are discussed.