The classification systems of nursing practice--the historical and practical perspective

The contribution into activities connected with the development of the quality of nursing care is closely combined with the process of systematic recording of accumulated data, of undertaken activities and achieved results. This in turn constitutes the essence of the 31st Aim of WHO which speaks not only about the need to continue the rational contribution towards the increase in the nursing care quality but also the application of adequate computer technologies to improve this quality. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the scope and character of the activities that have been over years undertaken by the nursing community towards the development of the classification systems which are comparable with those used in medicine. The focus has been specifically put on the taxonomy of diagnosis used by the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) and the European International Classification of Nursing Practice (ICNP). The analysis of the reference sources constitutes the methodological foundation applied in this work. It has allowed to show the pioneering contribution of the American Nursing Association (ANA) into the process of recording and coding of the data that are essential in care delivery as well as their value for the development of ICNP. The latter one is a systematic and multi-axial structure which uses unified terminology and numeric codes for the three categories of variables: the recognized conditions, the undertaken activities and the achieved results.