An Investigation Of Categorization And Labelling Of Nursing Behaviors Based On Information System

ObjectiveTo analyze the categorical attributes of nursing behaviors in hospital wards and to label them based on the existing clinical nursing practice. Standardize the name identifiers of nursing behaviors in the Nursing Information System and promote the cross-mapping of the terminologies at home and abroad. Thus to lay the foundation for exploring Chinese nursing terminologies that is suitable for our national conditions.Subjects and MethodsSubjects All the observable nursing behaviors implemented by registered nurses in the wards.Methods A qualitative research design is applied in this study. And it consists of the following two parts.1.Categorization and Labelling of Nursing Behaviors in Hospital WardsA sample of six typical wards is selected from a hospital by convenience sampling. All clinical nursing behaviors observed in the above wards are collected on the spot and then categorized and labeled. The research reliability is established by the field study in another four hospitals, involving fifteen wards and nine specialized departments in all. These are Departments of Orthopedics, Hematology, Neurosurgery, Neurology, Gynecology and Obstetrics, Pediatrics, General Surgery, Cardiac surgery and ICU. A series of research techniques, including participatory research, long-term engagement, deep interview with experts and member checking are applied for the establishment of reliability.2. Cost of Nursing Behaviors Related ServiceThe cost standards of nursing behaviors related service are selected out with the method of intensive literature review. The expense data of all the in-patients are retrieved from each ward's Hospital Information System respectively and then analyzed with Excel software, which result in the proportion of different kinds of cost all the in-patients spend of the day in the ward.ResultsNursing behaviors can be classified into four categories, i.e. basic nursing skills, infection control, nursing affairs and specialized nursing. While basic nursing skills includes six subcategories, i.e. living nursing, nursing technique, health education, instrumentation and nursing document writing. Living nursing covers patients' personal hygiene, environmental hygiene and daily life-care. And nursing technique can be classified into three subcategories according to its complexity and invasiveness, i.e. single noninvasive technique, single invasive technique and complex technique. Health education refers to planned, organized and systematical teaching activities initiated by nurses that prompt patients to adopt healthy behaviors and lifestyle, eliminate or reduce risky factors, prevent disease, promote health and improve quality of life. Meanwhile, instrumentation involves correct connection, parameters setting, observation, adjustment, maintaining, disinfection and function testing of all the equipments applied in clinical nursing practice. And document needs to be finished by nurses can be classified into medical and non-medical documents.Infection control contains cleaning, change, disinfection, monitoring, medical treatment garbage disposal. Nursing affairs includes ward management items such as simple documenting, receive and dispatch, counting, supplement, maintaining, cleaning and arrangement of ward materials, communication and coordination with other staff and departments. Specialized nursing consists of caring the newborn, patients with mental disease, special disease and chemotherapy and assisting delivery. etc.Among the above four categories of nursing behaviors, there is nearly no charge in nursing affairs and infection. Yet nursing charge is mainly reflected in nursing techniques and accessory examination of basic nursing skills.ConclusionThese research findings can reflect nursing behaviors implemented by the most ward nurses. The research process is scientific, rigorous, normalized. And it has been recognized and affirmed by the frontier clinical nurses and nursing experts. Though this is the beginning to develop our own country's nursing terminologies based on the clinical nursing practice. It is of great significance to build Nursing Information Systems that are suitable for our national conditions and promote the cross-mapping and integration with the international terminologies. However, compared with the advanced nursing in foreign countries, there is still a gap in the depth and breadth of our nursing practice. So great efforts are needed for international integration.