Fateme Eshghi - Ph.D. Student in Nursing, Student Research Committee, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Azam Shirinabadi Farahani - PhD in Nursing, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatric Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
armin Zareiyan - PhD in Nursing, Associate Professor, Public Health Department. Health in Disaster & Emergencies Dept. Nursing Faculty. Aja University of Medical Sciences. Tehran. Iran

Background: Spiritual distress negatively affects well-being, and its effects are much stronger and more permanent than the positive aspects of spirituality. Since spiritual distress has destructive effects, the introduction and validation of defining characteristics, which are most likely expressive of spiritual distress in the client, can be applied in the daily use of this nursing diagnosis for the quick identification of individuals with spiritual distress, designing targeted and culture-based nursing care, and cost reduction.Aim: The present study was performed with aim to assess the content validity of the defining characteristics of nursing diagnosis of "spiritual distress".Method: This methodological study was performed based on the six steps of Fehring's diagnostic content validity model. A total of ۴۰ nursing experts participated in the study to validate ۷۴ defining characteristics. Descriptive statistics and Fehring's diagnostic content validity model were used for data analysis.Results: Contents validity of ۷۴ defining characteristics was assessed. Six defining characteristics were identified as primary that four were introduced by North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA), four were considered as irrelevant and ۶۴ were identified as secondary that ۲۹ were introduced by NANDA. The total score of diagnostic content validity was ۰.۶۸.Implications for Practice: Validation and identification of defining characteristics as representative of nursing diagnosis of spiritual distress can be effectively applied to help quick and correct identification and provide targeted and optimal nursing care.

Distress, Nursing diagnosis, Spirituality, Validation studies