The Difficulty of Selecting the NANDA-I Nursing Diagnosis (2015-2017) of "Death Anxiety" in Japan.

PURPOSE: The purpose of our study was to clarify any difficulties or problems that exist in Japanese healthcare sites regarding the selection of death anxiety as a nursing diagnosis.

METHODS: This study was a qualitative, inductive research design. The semistructured interviews were conducted on the participants who were nurses and had 3 or more years of clinical experience in Japan.

RESULTS: Results showed four categories: "The Japanese have a culture of avoiding death," "It is extremely difficult to match diagnostic indicators and related factors with specific patient cases," "Other diagnoses exist that are effective and enable proactive intervention," and "The definition of death anxiety and the meaning of its diagnostic indicators are unintelligible."

DISCUSSION: It is thought that nursing diagnoses that reflect specific cultural backgrounds require definitions appropriate to each country and appropriate revisions to diagnostic indicators.