| The purpose of this study was to identify the scope of information features for Clinical Nursing Information Systems (CNIS) deemed important in the administration of nursing care.;Ninety-seven nursing information specialists representing 37 states and Canada, the majority of whom practiced in hospitals, participated in a two Round Delphi Survey. The Nursing Information Feature Survey (NIFS) tool, developed by the researcher, identified elements for a nursing information system in the delivery of patient care. The elements were divided into 6 categories: (1) Patient Specific; (2) Nursing Domain; (3) Institution Specific; (4) System Security; (5) Miscellaneous; (6) Future Features.;There was a total of 70 items which were rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Items within each category were analyzed and ranked according to highest mean scores. Of the 70 items, 38 had a consensus of 80% of the panelists. An analysis of the data support the strongest consensus among the specialists was in the Patient Specific category. The categories with the least amount of consensus were the Nursing Domain and Future Feature categories.;In addition, two themes emerged from the findings of the study. One was that the majority of the information features be patient-focused and integrated with other data bases. The other was that the features preferred by the panelists were complex and reflected knowledge processing rather than simple data processing. Comments by the specialists indicated a wide variance of opinion on the use of nursing models, standards of care, nursing diagnosis and critical paths in automated systems. There was also lack of agreement on what constituted nursing domain data.;Demographics of the panelists support a mature group of systems users, who work with a variety of micro, midrange and mainframe system configurations.;Recommendations included a survey of other populations, such as nurse administrators and nurses in different clinical settings to compare the different information needs of nurses in practice. The information features identified in the NIFS could be used as standards for evaluating and designing automated system for the delivery of nursing care. |
