The nursing diagnosis movement has now reached many European countries and is rapidly being accepted as a method with which to advance the professional status of nursing as well as to define, structure, standardize and systematize nursing care. It is necessary that the import of Anglo-Saxon nursing concepts, theories and models are critically examined for cultural, contextual and philosophical appropriateness. In this article, we articulate and critically examine some of the assumptions implicit in nursing diagnosis, using examples from our clinical research in Sweden.