Virginia K. Saba

Toward Standard Classification Schemes for Nursing Language: Recommendations of the American Nurses Association Steering Committee on Databases to Support Clinical Nursing Practice

The American Nurses Association (ANA) Cabinet on Nursing Practice mandated the formation of the Steering Committee on Databases to Support Clinical Nursing Practice. The Committee has established the process and the criteria by which to review and recommend nursing classification schemes based on the ANA Nursing Process Standards and elements contained in the Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS) for inclusion of nursing data elements in national databases. Four classification schemes have been recognized by the Committee for use in national databases. These classification schemes have been forwarded to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) for inclusion in the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) and to the International Council of Nurses for the development of a proposed International Classification of Nursing Practice.

A brief history of nursing informatics in the United States of America

From the beginning of modern nursing, data from standardized patient records were seen as a potentially powerful resource for assessing and improving the quality of care. As nursing informatics began to evolve in the second half of the 20th century, the lack of standards for language and data limited the functionality and usefulness of early applications. In response, nurses developed standardized languages, but until the turn of the century, neither they nor anyone else understood the attributes required to achieve computability and semantic interoperability. Collaboration across disciplines and national boundaries has led to the development of standards that meet these requirements, opening the way for powerful information tools. Many challenges remain, however. Realizing the potential of nurses to transform and improve health care and outcomes through informatics will require fundamental changes in individuals, organizations, and systems. Nurses are developing and applying informatics methods and tools to discover knowledge and improve health from the molecular to the global level and are seeking the collective wisdom of interdisciplinary and interorganizational collaboration to effect the necessary changes. NOTE: Although this article focuses on nursing informatics in the United States, nurses around the world have made substantial contributions to the field. This article alludes to a few of those advances, but a comprehensive description is beyond the scope of the present work.

Translation and Integration of CCC Nursing Diagnoses into ICNP

The purpose of this study was to translate and integrate nursing diagnosis concepts from the Clinical Care Classification (CCC) System Version 2.0 to DiagnosticPhenomenon or nursing diagnostic statements in the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) Version 1.0. Source concepts for CCC were mapped by the project team, where possible, to pre-coordinated ICNP terms. The manual decomposition of source concepts according to the ICNP 7-Axis Model served to validate the mappings. A total of 62% of the CCC Nursing Diagnoses were a pre-coordinated match to an ICNP concept, 35% were a post-coordinated match and only 3% had no match. During the mapping process, missing CCC concepts were submitted to the ICNP Programme, with a recommendation for inclusion in future releases.

A look at nursing informatics

This is a companion article to the article on Medical Informatics. It focuses on the new nursing specialty-Nursing Informatics. This article provides an overview, scope, definitions, data standards, goals, and research initiatives designed to advance the status Nursing Informatics. Seven research priorities have been proposed which not only provides the direction for Nursing Informatics research, but also the focus for computer-based nursing information systems.

The computer in public health: today and tomorrow.

Thirty years ago computer technology was in its infancy, its potential only beckoning in the distance. Today it is a reality that has swept the nation, not like a broom, but more like a vacuum. It has brought about change in uncountable phases of human endeavor and has had a distinctly notable impact on public health/community health nursing; its administration, practice, education, and research.

Computer applications in nursing

Computer applications in nursing are becoming increasingly evident. Todays computer has had irrevocable impact on the health care industry in general and most particularly on the nursing profession. The computer, therefore, is be coming an indispensable part of nursing practice.

Computerized Nursing Information Systems: An Urgent Need

The foundation of professional nursing is, in part, based on recordings of its activities. Nightingale (1859) emphasized the importance of nursing records in her notes on nursing. Today, nurses spend a large proportion of their time writing nursing records to describe their patients and document the therapy provided and, to a degree, to report the outcomes of these interventions. Yet, nurses have not organized and used this extensive documentation in a systematic way to advance nursing knowledge, to develop nursing practice, or to improve patient care. Computerized information systems offer the opportunity to identify, manipulate, retrieve, and use data in ways that will facilitate the attainment of these goals.