A trend to change therapeutic interventions in critically
ill patients was observed in the literature, which suggests
there is a need to seek grants to develop further knowledge
of nursing practice related to the use of the nursing
diagnosis of DCO(5). In order to improve the knowledge
of this subject, this research was conducted with the
following guiding questions: Which defining characteristics
(DCs) are identified for the DCO nursing diagnosis within
national and international scientific publications? What are
the technological resources needed to measure these DCs?