Documented Nursing Interventions in Inpatient Psychiatry

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Informatics
• Psychiatric Nursing

Background:

• The Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) is a standardized tool for describing nursing care.
• Accurate classification of nursing interventions is crucial for quality patient care and research.
• The extent to which the NIC reflects current adult inpatient psychiatric care practices requires evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the coverage of adult inpatient psychiatric nursing interventions by the current Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC).
• To identify gaps and areas for improvement within the NIC for psychiatric settings.

Main Methods:

• Systematic analysis of nursing interventions documented in patient records.
• A mapping approach was used to compare documented interventions with the NIC taxonomy.
• Intervention descriptions were assessed for concurrency with NIC definitions.

Main Results:

• A total of 2,153 nursing intervention descriptions were analyzed.
• 1,924 (89.4%) of the documented interventions were recognizable within the NIC framework.
• 229 interventions did not directly map to the existing NIC interventions.

Conclusions:

• The NIC provides substantial coverage for adult inpatient psychiatric nursing care.
• The findings support the continued use and application of the NIC in psychiatric settings.
• Further refinement and development of the NIC are necessary to fully encompass all aspects of psychiatric nursing practice.