Adoption of standardized terminologies

Adoption of standardized terminologies A significant element in differentiating between the practices and purposes of medicine and nursing lies in the professional languages that the two disciplines use and understand (Nolan 2004). In health care, it is, therefore, fundamental to use standardized nursing terminologies to help in capturing nursing’s independent contributions that replicate the uniqueness of nursing care as a discipline. According to Nolan (2004), a standardized nursing terminology is a common language among clinical nurses that they readily understand and that are unique to and describes nursing care as a discipline.
In my capacity as a practicing research clinical nurse, I would welcome the implementation of Nursing Intervention Classification (NIC) standardized terminology. NIC is a broad, research-based, standardized classification of care-interventions that clinical nurses perform (Nolan, 2004). It is important for communication of care all over, clinical documentation, productivity measurement, and integration of data across systems and settings, competency evaluation, effectiveness research, curricular design and reimbursement (Clark & Lang, 1992). The NIC Classification comprises of both collaborative and independent interventions that clinical nurses do on behalf of their patients as well as both direct and indirect patient care. Nurses define an intervention as any vital treatment, based on clinical knowledge, wisdom and judgment that a clinical nurse performs to boost client or patient outcomes (Nolan, 2004).
I would welcome NIC because it is useful in all clinical settings from acute care ICUs to home care, hospice and primary care. NIC can also be used in all medical specialties from critical patient care to ambulatory care, as well as long-term care (Nolan, 2004). Although the entire NIC classification only describes the nursing domain, some of its interventions are also done by other care providers. Moreover, NIC is also applicable to other non-physician providers in describing their treatments. It is a terminology that can save many situations in case of emergencies in care, in the presence and absence of a nurse (Clark & Lang, 1992).
References
Clark, J., & Lang, N. (1992). Nursings next advance: An internal classification for nursing practice. International Nursing Review, 39(4), 109-111, 128.
Nolan, P. (2004). NIC and the performance continuum. Paper presented at the NANDA, NIC, NOC 2004, Chicago, IL.