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

Current nursing terminology efforts have converged toward meeting the demand for a reference terminology for nursing concepts by building on the foundation of existing interface and administrative terminologies and by collaborating 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 range of exemplary activities. These include: 1) the International Classification of Nursing Practice (ICNP) activities of the International Council of Nurses (ICN), 2) work in Brazil and Korea that has contributed to, and been stimulated by, ICNP developments, 3) efforts in the United States to improve understanding of the different types of terminologies needed in nursing and to promote harmonization and linking among them, and 4) current nursing participation in major multi-disciplinary standards initiatives. Although early nursing terminology work occurred primarily in isolation and resulted in some duplicative efforts, the activities summarized in this article demonstrate a tremendous level of collaboration and convergence not only in the discipline of nursing but in multi-disciplinary standards initiatives. These efforts are an important prerequisite for ensuring that nursing concepts are represented in computer-based systems in a manner that facilitates multi-purpose use at local, national, regional, and international levels.