[Validation in Spain of the dysfunctional ventilatory response to weaning]

In this article we present the study financed by the Sanitary Investigations Fund (FIS), with the objectives to prove that the Nursing Diagnosis of "Dysfunctional Ventilatory Response at Weaning" (DWRU) incorporated to the taxonomy of the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA), is valid in Spain; as well as identify the items which configure its definition. A descriptive observational study was performed in nine Intensive Care Units belonging to six autonomous communities, including as study subjects 89 male and female nurses who are experts in yhe care of critically ill patients with mechanical ventilation. The model of validation proposed by Fehring and the Delphi Technique were used. The data were analysed calculating the average of the weights of each defining feature; percentage and average calculus; opinion percentages about the related factors; variability calculus; and factorial analysis of the result. The results make us conclude that Spanish nurses who have experience in taking care of critically ill patients, identify DWRU as a phenomenon which patients in our environment present and which can be treated by them. Besides, the identification of levels of DWRU into Severe, Moderate and Slight which the NANDA suggests, is better applied using an association of factors than defining higher and lower features.