Modeling nursing interventions in the act class of HL7 RIM Version 3

The proposed Health Level 7 Reference Information Model (HL7 RIM) Version 3 is the foundation for expressing data to be communicated across health care information systems. The general objective of this analysis was to examine whether the RIM supports the expression of nursing interventions, considering both terminological and structural perspectives. The Nursing Terminology Summit Interventions Group focused on patient education about breast cancer, an intervention that differs sufficiently from other medical processes already considered by HL7 and represents issues surrounding both definition and execution of nursing process. Relevant actors, actions, and action relationships were culled from use cases and modeled into the proposed RIM structure and attributes by using modified instance diagrams. This method was effective and reproducible, and the RIM proved to be an adequate model for supporting breast cancer education. Additional interventions must be studied to fully assess the adequacy of the model to support all aspects of nursing process and terminology.