Promoting safe nursing care by bringing visibility to the disciplinary aspects of interdisciplinary care

The provision of safe and effective interdisciplinary care requires making the unique and interdependent aspects of disciplinary care visible and understandable. Ideally, the electronic health record (EHR) should capture both disciplinary and interdisciplinary care. This paper reports on a "real time" pilot of a technology supported method of documenting, communicating, and tracking the nursing component of the patient's plan of care for eventual integration into EHR. An intensive care unit tested the intervention that included the adoption and use of the NANDA, NOC, and NIC terminologies. Multiple methods were used to evaluate the impact of the care planning method for a 12 month period. We found that the increased visibility of nursing care promoted greater awareness and understanding (collective mind) of care and in turn enhanced continuity. The results of the pilot were used to further refine our theoretical framework and method for the multi-site study currently underway.