Towards a standardized representation to support data reuse: representing the ICNP semantics using the HL7 RIM

Area of Science:

• Nursing Informatics
• Health Information Management
• Clinical Terminology

Background:

• Reusable nursing assessment data is crucial for patient care decision-making.
• The International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) concept model was previously extended for nursing assessment data representation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the extended ICNP concept model's potential for electronic nursing documentation.
• To assess its capability for generating Health Level Seven (HL7) conformant messages.
• To map the ICNP model to the HL7 Reference Information Model (RIM).

Main Methods:

• Mapping the extended ICNP concept model to the HL7 RIM.
• Evaluating semantic alignment between ICNP and HL7 RIM.

Main Results:

• Complete semantic relation between ICNP and HL7 RIM was observed.
• ICNP is a suitable candidate terminology for encoding nursing assessment data in electronic documentation systems.
• Minor semantic representation differences highlight the value of broad semantic relations in ICNP.

Conclusions:

• The extended ICNP concept model demonstrates strong potential for electronic nursing documentation.
• ICNP's mapping to HL7 RIM supports interoperability and conformant message generation.
• Further development in ICNP semantic relations can enhance its utility.