One of the sciences involved in the field of nursing is nursing informatics. It is a relatively new branch of science which focuses on the integration of nursing information and knowledge with information and communication technology management to help in the promotion of the people’s health globally. It has been claimed that the field of nursing informatics greatly helps the healthcare practitioners achieve a healthcare which is patient-centered. Nursing informatics can be used in multitude of ways such as (1) development of various representations and standards that can provide appropriate support for different researches and evidence-based practices; (2) Provision of appropriate standards for health data and communication that can help establish an interoperable national data infrastructure; (3) Search different procedures and methodologies that can provide new ways of information dissemination; (4) Creation if different technologies that can address the inter-professional workflow needed within the field of healthcare; (5) Establishment of different healthcare policies that can help advance the health of the public (American Medical Informatics Association, n.d.).
Standardization of terminologies and nomenclature is one of the requirements of nursing informatics and electronic health records. Additionally, the process of standardization is important and necessary to be able to share information between other disciplines and health care settings. Some of the known benefits of standardization are improved communication between health professionals, cheaper ways of measuring the impact of nursing care on patients, increased visibility of the different nursing interventions, improved patient care, facilitation of evaluation of nursing competency, and provision of total and actual financial statements and benefits of nursing care. These benefits can help provide easier access to records which can be used for staffing ratios, billing purposes, and even information dissemination (Lundberg, et al., 2008).
In the field of nursing, nurses also use standardized terminologies to educate students on the different concepts in nursing which are essential in the nursing process and the development of new nurses. Aside from this, standardized terminologies are also used by nurses to assist in the process of critical thinking and decision making. Moreover, the standardization of terminologies and nomenclature can help in the documentation, storage, and retrieval of evidence-based practices which can help disclose the influence and effect of nursing care through the use of technology and electronic (Lundberg, et al., 2008).
Currently, the American Nurses Association has also provided thirteen languages which are considered to be standardized and are able to support nursing care. However, out of these thirteen languages, only ten have been acknowledged as specific to nursing care. The standardization of the nursing language is a step to allow data and information to be measured and coded (Rutherford, 2008). According to Keenan (1999), standardization of the nursing language refers to the processes of converting information into a common language which can be readily understood by nurses to be able to describe patient care. According to the national survey of the experiences and attitudes of nurses on standardized nursing terminologies, only 14% of the clinical nurses and 15% of the academic nurses who participated in the survey revealed that they do not have any prior knowledge or experience on the three most familiar standardized nursing terminologies (NANDA, NIC, NOC). Additionally, the survey also reported that informatics nurses are more knowledgeable and familiar on these standardized nursing terminologies than non-informatics nurses (Thede and Schwiran, 2011).
In totality, current advancement of technology and the creation of electronic health record system show the need for the standardization of nursing terminologies and nomenclature for the improvement of patient outcomes and patient care.
References
American Medical Informatics Association. (n.d.). Nursing Informatics Working Group. AMIA: Informatics Professionals. Leading the Way. Retrieved from https://www.amia.org/programs/working-groups/nursing-informatics [Accessed on 3 May 2016]
Keenan, G. (1999). Use of standardized nursing language will make nursing visible. Michigan Nurse 72(2): 12-13.
Lundberg, C.B., Warren, J.J., Brokel, J., Bulechek, G.M., Butcher, H.K., Dochterman, J.M., Johnson, M., Maas, M., Martin, K.S., Moorhead, S., Spisla, C., Swanson, E., and Giarrizzo-Wilson, S. (2008). Selecting a Standardized Terminology for the Electronic Health Record that Reveals the Impact of Nursing on Patient Care. OJNI: Online Journal of Nursing Informatics 12(2).
Rutherford, M. (2008). Standardized Nursing Language: What Does It Mean for Nursing Practice?. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing 13(1).
Thede, L.Q. and Schwiran, P.M. (2011). Informatics: The Standardized Nursing Terminologies: A National Survey of Nurses’ Experiences and Attitudes- Survey I. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing 16(2).
