Kontakt 2006, 8(2):249-256 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2006.042

Validation of nursing diagnosis HopelessnessNursing

Katarína Žiaková^*, Juraj Čáp, Elena Holmanová

Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Jesseniova lekárska fakulta v Martine, Ústav ošetrovateľstva

One of the aims solved by the authors of the grant task called VEGA No. 1/2484/05: Problems of death and dying of man. Theoretical points of departure and practical consequences, analysis of problems of hope. In the effort to interconnect theoretical points of departure with the praxis, the authors have decided to address validation of nursing diagnosis called Hopelessness. Categorization of nursing diagnoses together with their diagnostic characteristics, their clinical applicability and reflexion of socio-cultural differences are basic preconditions of applicability of the terminology in international context. The use of the NANDA taxonomy provokes discussions among teachers, nurses, but also students. Most frequently, the critics concerns just the terminology of diagnoses and broad demarcation of their diagnostic characteristics, which are problematic from the point of view of their objectification.
The authors of the study have used the modified Fehring Diagnostic Content Validity Model. They designed a measuring tool to assess the significance of diagnostic characteristics of the Hopelessness diagnosis. The measuring tool contained 37 diagnostic characteristics. On the base of answers of experts (teachers and nurses) who assessed the diagnostic characteristics from NANDA International and the characteristics created from Nowotny Hope Scale, the authors of the study determined subsequently the defining diagnostic characteristics of Hopelessness, which they present in the text.
In the scope of the study, they ascertained also the rate of dependence among individual defining characteristics through calculation of a simple linear correlation (Pearson correlation coefficient) and determined also the level of critical statistic significance of this correlation.
The conclusions following from the study, as well as results of other authors (Fadden, Fehring, Sato, Wake) advert to current need of unification of results of multi-ethnical validation studies, including their subsequent clinical validation.

Keywords: validation; DCV methodology; hopelessness; NANDA International; Nowotny Hope Scale

Published: December 15, 2006  Show citation