Terminology standards for nursing: collaboration at the summit

The objective of the 1999 Nursing Vocabulary Summit Conference was to seek consensus on and a common approach to the development of nursing terminology standards for use in information systems.

A four-day invitational conference brought together authors and representatives of responsible organizations concerned with the nursing terminologies recognized or under consideration by the American Nurses Association, along with experts on language and standards and representatives of professional organizations, federal agencies, and the health informatics industry.

Participants distinguished between colloquial terminologies and reference terminologies, and between information models and terminology models. They agreed that most recognized nursing terminologies were colloquial terminologies and that a reference terminology was needed. They formed task forces to develop and test aspects of a reference terminology model prior to a second meeting in June 2000, at which they would determine readiness to collaborate on a single international standard.

The 1999 Nursing Vocabulary Summit Conference changed the level of discussion about nursing vocabulary standards from a debate about the relative merits of the various terminologies recognized in the United States to an examination of methods for developing and testing a reference terminology model and, eventually, a reference terminology that could serve as an international standard.