THE CONCEPTUAL VALIDITY OF A TAXONOMY OF NURSING INTERVENTIONS

The purpose of this paper is to report validity evidence for the nursing intervention taxonomy developed as part of the Nursing intervention Lexicon and Taxonomy (NILT) Study. Using eclectic classification methods of library science, cognitive science, nursing science and computational linguistics, a taxonomy of nursing interventions consisting of seven categories was developed. These categories which incorporate care as a central concept are described and defined, and prototypical examples of each category are presented. Brinberg and McGrath's validity schema provides the framework within which evidence for validity as value, validity as correspondence and validity as generalizability were examined. Comparison of the NILT categories with previously published categorizations of nursing functions and interventions provides strong support for the validity of this classification. Additionally, comparison of the NILT categories with two internationally derived categorizations of nursing functions supports the robustness or generalizability of the NILT classification.