title: Attributing fuzzy values to nursing diagnoses and their elements: the specialists' opinion.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test the viability of to use specialists' opinions to establish degrees of membership between nursing diagnoses and its elements (defining characteristics or risk factors), based on the concepts of fuzzy sets theory. This strategy may feasibly mapping the specialist's knowledge on the diagnostic task.
  
  
  METHODS
  Specialists were invited to reflect on the relationship between diagnoses and elements using linguistic variables, with a numerical representation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We generated four matrices of 28 diagnoses and 62 elements. Out of 905 possibilities, we identified 286 relationships, represented in graphs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The strategy was able to identify degrees of membership between nursing diagnoses and elements.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It seems that this method, if expanded, would contribute to refining and mapping the NANDA-I terminology.
authors.affiliation: São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: Diná
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: de Almeida Lopes Monteiro da Cruz
authors.forename: Luiz Celso
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: Maria Helena Baena de Moraes
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Lopes
mesh_terms: D017143:Fuzzy Logic; D006801:Humans; D009733:Nursing Diagnosis; D013041:Specialties, Nursing
keywords: Decision support technique; fuzzy logic; nursing diagnosis; nursing informatics