Objective: the study's objective was the clinical validation of the nursing diagnosis Risk for Aspiration among patients who experienced cerebrovascular accidents (CVA).
Method: a prospective cohort study was conducted with 24 patients hospitalized due to a CVA. The instrument used to collect the data addressed the risk factors for respiratory aspiration, validated by concept analysis and by experts.
Results: the most frequent risk factors for respiratory aspiration were: dysphagia (54.2%) and impaired physical mobility (41.7%). The prevalence of the nursing diagnosis Risk for Aspiration was 58.3% and the prevalence of respiratory aspiration over the span of 48 hours (monitoring period) was 37.5%. Risk factors for dysphagia and impaired physical mobility were significantly associated with respiratory aspiration.
Conclusion: the risk factors dysphagia and impaired physical mobility are good predictors of the nursing diagnosis Risk for Aspiration. This study contributed to improving the NANDA-I Taxonomy and the systematization of the nursing process.