Aim: to analyze whether nursing goals formulated for nursing diagnoses can be mapped to nursing outcomes classification and to identify the scales most appropriate to the outcomes mapped.
Method: a descriptive study was developed in an intensive care unit. Data collection involved extraction of goals in 44 medical records, content standardization, cross-mapping to the outcomes, identification of appropriated scales and validation. Descriptive analysis and agreement with the cross-mapping process were performed.
Results: nursing goals (59) were mapped to (28) different outcomes, with agreement of 83% in the mapping process. All goals were mapped to outcomes, which allows to affirm that these outcomes contemplates the goals elaborated to patient care.
Conclusion: these results favor the inclusion of outcomes and scales validated in the planning and evaluation phases of the nursing process of a software in construction.