While use of nursing diagnoses has increased both in the United States and abroad, there have been few reports on the use and applicability of the diagnostic categories across culturally distinct populations. The authors report a preliminary study which compared the use of selected diagnostic categories in an American group and a Mexican group of nurses. Data indicate that nurses did not demonstrate consistency with one another in use of diagnoses either within each group or between groups. The authors caution that further study and documentation of how diagnoses are understood and used by practitioners is needed before widespread international or transcultural usage in encouraged.