Nursing and Informatics for the 21st Century – Embracing a Digital World, 3rd Edition
Book 3: Innovation, Technology, and Applied Informatics for Nurses
2022 Productivity Press: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003281016
Chapter 2
Authors: Peggy White, Lynn M. Nagle, Kathryn J. Hannah
Contemporary nursing practice is being increasingly supported through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly for the purposes of documenting clinical assessments, interventions and outcomes within and across clinical settings. With the advent of clinical information systems, the opportunities to generate new understandings and nursing knowledge abound but are hampered by the absence of data standards. In Canada, efforts to construct nursing documentation using standardized terminology and measures have been underway for several years. The Canadian Health Outcomes for Better Information and Care (C-HOBIC) initiative inaugurated standardization of nursing terminology in Canada and provides the primary focus of this chapter. Specifically, the authors provide an overview of the (a) evolution of C-HOBIC, (b) role of the Canadian Nurses Association in advancing the work, (c) mapping of the C-HOBIC dataset to SNOMED-CT and ICNP, (d) implementation across Canada including specific examples and (e) challenges and current and future opportunities. The current National Nursing Data Standards (NNDS) initiative is also discussed, highlighting relevant activities within the domains of nursing practice, administration, research, education and health policy.