title: Causation and Validation of Nursing Diagnoses: A Middle Range Theory.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe a predictive middle range theory (MRT) that provides a process for validation and incorporation of nursing diagnoses in clinical practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  Literature review.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The MRT includes definitions, a pictorial scheme, propositions, causal relationships, and translation to nursing practice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The MRT can be a useful alternative for education, research, and translation of this knowledge into practice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This MRT can assist clinicians in understanding clinical reasoning, based on temporal logic and spectral interaction among elements of nursing classifications. In turn, this understanding will improve the use and accuracy of nursing diagnosis, which is a critical component of the nursing process that forms a basis for nursing practice standards worldwide.
authors.affiliation: Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marcos Venícios
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: de Oliveira Lopes
authors.affiliation: Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil.
authors.forename: Viviane Martins
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.affiliation: Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil.|NANDA International, Inc., Kaukauna, Wisconsin, United States.
authors.forename: T Heather
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Herdman
mesh_terms: D015984:Causality; D009733:Nursing Diagnosis; D009742:Nursing Theory
keywords: Clinical reasoning; middle-range theory; nursing diagnosis