Data in Nursing Practice The Benefits and Challenges of Implementing Standardized Nursing Terminologies in Nursing Practice

 Effective communication is crucial in the nursing profession. Nurses and allied healthcare workers should share information to enhance service delivery.  As a result, the nursing profession designed standardized languages to assist doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers to share information effectively, clearly, and swiftly. 

There are multiple benefits associated with standardized languages.  First, standardized language improves communication among healthcare providers and nurses.  Effective communication facilitates knowledge, information, and data transfer among systems to enhance interoperability (Walden University, n.d). Secondly, standardized nursing languages enhance nursing interventions’ visibility. For instance, nurses use standardized terminologies to express what they have done to their patients. Thirdly, the use of standardized language enhances patient care. For instance, nurses use terminologies like NOC and NIC language to determine their patients’ outcomes and interventions. Therefore, implementing standardized nursing terminologies benefits the nursing profession, the organization, and the patient.

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 However, the use of standardized nursing terminologies is characterized by multiple challenges. For instance, nurses and allied healthcare providers are compelled to associate procedures and tests with conditions or diagnoses that do not reflect their patient’s presenting symptoms. For instance, a patient may present with lower abdominal pain, but further diagnostic CT and exam indicate that the patient suffers from a rare condition like epiploic appendagitis. Therefore, if a doctor is compelled to choose from ICD-9 codes, epiploic appendagitis is not present, forcing the physician to choose the alternative option such as diverticulitis. Similarly, standardized nursing terminologies fail to reflect the true essence of care provided. Using standardized technologies also forces healthcare workers to exert extra efforts in identifying appropriate diagnoses based on the patients’ presenting symptoms, which undermines face-to-face interaction. Additionally, healthcare workers are required to update the terminologies by replacing them with new ones. Therefore, solutions to these challenges are necessary to enhance the effectiveness of standardized nursing terminologies.

Reference

Walden University. (n.d). The advantages of using standardized nursing language. https://www.waldenu.edu/online-masters-programs/master-of-science-in-nursing/resource/the-advantages-of-using-standardized-nursing-language