Collaborative efforts for representing nursing concepts in computer-based systems: International perspectives

Current nursing terminology efforts have converged toward meeting the deman d for a reference terminology for nursing concepts by building on the found ation of existing interface and administrative terminologies and by collabo rating with terminology efforts across the spectrum of health care. In this article, the authors illustrate how collaboration is promoting convergence toward a reference terminology for nursing by briefly summarizing a wide r ange of exemplary activities. These include: 1) the International Classific ation of Nursing Practice (ICNP) activities of the International Council of Nurses (ICN), 2) work in Brazil and Korea that has contributed to, and bee n stimulated by, ICNP developments, 3) efforts in the United States to impr ove understanding of the different types of terminologies needed in nursing and to promote harmonization and linking among them, and 4) current nursin g participation in major multi-disciplinary standards initiatives. Although early nursing terminology work occurred primarily in isolation and resulte d in some duplicative efforts, the activities summarized in this article de monstrate a tremendous level of collaboration and convergence not only in t he discipline of nursing but in multi-disciplinary standards initiatives. T hese efforts are an important prerequisite for ensuring that nursing concep ts are represented in computer-based systems in a manner that facilitates m ulti-purpose use at local, national, regional, and international levels.