Health informatics A

What is the purpose of the terminology?

This terminology is a set of standardized, research-based classifications that was developed to evaluate the impact of interventions provided by nurses and other health care professionals. Its purpose is to work in collaboration with NANDA-I diagnoses to provide terms for documenting and measuring patient outcomes in the electronic record, as well as for use in clinical information setting and in the education of nursing professionals and students. 

How is the terminology currently being used?

This terminology is one of the standardized languages recognized by the American Nurses' Association (ANA). It is currently being using in number of clinical sites for the evaluation of nursing practice and is being used in educational settings to structure curricula and teach students clinical evaluation. It has been translated into a variety of different languages including Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Spanish and several other translations are in progress. There are currently 540 outcomes listed, with each outcome having a definition, a list of indicators that can be used to evaluate patient status in relation to the outcome, a target outcome rating, a measurement scale(s) to measure patient status, and a short list of references used in the development and refinement of the outcome. Each outcome has a unique code number that can be used in a computerized clinical information system, allows data about nursing care quality and effectiveness to be obtain.

How does the terminology enable the sharing of data across systems (i.e., interoperability)?

The use of this terminology allows nurses across different systems and settings to speak the same language, per se, by providing a standardized classification system. There are currenlty 540 outcomes listed, each with a unique code number that facilitates interoperability and the exchange of data across systems which allows outcomes to be more easily evaluated, effective research to be conducted, and provides the means for measuring intervention impact, nurse productivity, and nurse competency.

What are the key challenges to implementation and sustainability of the terminology?

One of the greatest challenges is keeping the terminology updated to include new outcomes and to revise outcomes based on new research or user feedback.