Impact of Standardized Terminologies on Practice
The use of standardized language for documentation is pertinent to both the bedside nurses and the nursing profession as a whole (Schwirian 20). In essence, there are many benefits that standard nursing language yields throughout the clinical setting including better communication among staff and visibility of nursing interventions. Moreover, standardized language facilitates patient care, assessment of nursing competency and greater adherence to standards of practice. Certainly, standard terminologies such as those of the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) have direct implications in nursing practice.
Typically, standardized terminologies operate under mechanisms that evolve and maintain the terminologies over time. The NANDA terminology includes terms that describe the care in different types of settings, a situation that provides comprehensiveness of terms. The rationale for the use of NANDA terminologies to improve nursing documentation borders on the ability to retrieve and analyzes the documentation over time in order to support quality nursing care and evidence-based nursing practice. Specifically, the NANDA terminology system will allow for understanding patient responses and interventions in standardized analyzes of documentation. Moreover, effective policymaking and workforce planning require better information infrastructure and data collection possible with the NANDA terminology that allows uniform documentation regardless of the healthcare settings, thus enhancing uniformity and quality care outcomes.
Additionally, the use of Nanda terminology in the clinical nursing practice will have enormous immediate implications. Because patients obtain care from various points across the healthcare system, it is difficult to maintain current medical records and eliminate variability. In essence, where the record format and content is variable means that the current medical records are virtually useless and cannot support patient-centric care in nursing practice. With the use of NANDA terminology in all healthcare settings quality, care outcomes are feasible. While recording patient information, for example, using the NANDA terminologies means that the records in different settings will bear the same information devoid subjectivity from the clinicians. Unlike, in the traditional records where different clinicians would document patient information using their words, use of NANDA terminology eliminates redundancies, misinterpretation and errors of omission.
In conclusion, the use of standardized language for documentation is pertinent to both the bedside nurses and the nursing profession as a whole. The NANDA terminology includes terms that describe the care in different types of settings, a situation that provides comprehensiveness of terms. Therefore, the use of NANDA terminology will ensure easy accessibility and flow of patient information to enhance care quality, continuity and safety.
Works Cited
Schwirian, P. W. "Informatics and the Future of Nursing: Harnessing the Power of Standardized Nursing Terminology." Bulletin of the Association for Information Science and Technology 39.5 (2013): 20-24. Web. <www.asis.org/Bulletin/Jun-13/JunJul13_Schwirian.pdf>.
