Abstract
PURPOSE
To evaluate completeness, granularity, multiple axial content, and clinical utility of the beta version of the International Classification of Nursing Practice (ICNP®).
METHODS
Standardized care plans were developed based on research in the areas of nutrition and skin care and clinically tested in a 35-bed infectious disease unit at a Swedish university hospital. A convenience sample of 56 computerized and manual patient records were content analyzed and mapped to the terms in ICNP® beta.
FINDINGS
A total of 1,771 phrases were identified. Approximately 60% of the record content describing nursing phenomena and about one third of the nursing interventions in the areas of nutrition and skin care could be expressed satisfactorily using the terminology of ICNP® beta. For about 25% of the content describing both nursing phenomena and interventions, no corresponding term was found. The most common deficiencies were focus terms for stating patient perspective or collaboration, nonhuman focus, normal findings, more qualitative judgments, and different expressions for stating duration. Some terms are available in the ICNP beta as a whole, but the organization of axes impedes or restricts the use of terms beyond the ICNP categories. Terms needed to express nursing phenomena could sometimes be found in nursing actions axes.
CONCLUSIONS
The ICNP® beta needs to be further developed to capture relevant data in nursing care. The axial structure needs to be evaluated, and completeness and granularity of terms need to be addressed further before ICNP beta can be used on a daily basis in the clinical setting. Terms need to be developed to express patient participation and preferences, normal conditions, qualitative dimensions and characteristics, nonhuman focuses as well as duration. Empirical studies covering the complexity of information in nursing care are needed.
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