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Evaluation of the Expressiveness of an ICNP-based Nursing Data Dictionary in a Computerized Nursing Record System

^a Department of Nursing, Inha University, Younghyun-dong, Nam-gu, Incheon, South Korea
^b College of Nursing, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

^_* Correspondence and reprints: InSook Cho, PhD, RN, Department of Nursing, College of Medicine, Inha University, 253 Younghyun-dong, Nam-gu, Incheon 402-751, Korea. (Email: insook.cho{at}inha.ac.kr).

Received for publication: 09/26/05; accepted for publication: 04/11/06.

This study evaluated the domain completeness and expressiveness issues of the International Classification for Nursing Practice-based (ICNP) nursing data dictionary (NDD) through its application in an enterprise electronic medical record (EMR) system as a standard vocabulary at a single tertiary hospital in Korea. Data from 2,262 inpatients obtained over a period of 9 weeks (May to July 2003) were extracted from the EMR system for analysis. Among the 530,218 data-input events, 401,190 (75.7%) were entered from the NDD, 20,550 (3.9%) used only free text, and 108,478 (20.4%) used a combination of coded data and free text. A content analysis of the free-text events showed that 80.3% of the expressions could be found in the NDD, whereas 10.9% were context-specific expressions such as direct quotations of patient complaints and responses, and references to the care plan or orders of physicians. A total of 7.8% of the expressions was used for a supplementary purpose such as adding a conjunction or end verb to make an expression appear as natural language. Only 1.0% of the expressions were identified as not being covered by the NDD. This evaluation study demonstrates that the ICNP-based NDD has sufficient power to cover most of the expressions used in a clinical nursing setting.