USA NMMDS (USA Nursing Management Minimum Data Set)
What is the USA NMMDS?
The USA NMMDS includes core essential data needed to support the administrative and management information needs for the provision of nursing care. The standardized format allows for comparable nursing data collection within and across organizations. Developed by Huber and Delaney1,2,3, nursing leaders in the United States, the USA NMMDS is a research based data set that has the potential to support the diverse information needs of nurse managers, executives and health care administrators.
Why is the USA NMMDS Important?
Health care budgetary concerns and multidisciplinary staffing requirements necessitate data that adequately and accurately reflects discipline specific requirements. Data sets that are not reflective of a practice cannot by nature adequately represent or measure that practice. Use of a standardized nursing management data set can provide health care administrators and nursing leaders with a means to better compare, analyze and benchmark nursing requirements and productivity.
All health care organizations that employ nurses collect at least some of the NMMDS data elements, however, they are not uniformly defined or coded for comparison. Considerable research has been conducted demonstrating that elements contained in the NMMDS influence adverse events, patient morbidity and mortality, and staff retention, satisfaction, and well-being.
Defining USA NMMDS Elements - Version 1 (2006)
The USA NMMDS is consists of 18 data elements grouped into three broad categories - environment, nursing care, and financial resources:
- Environment: Unit/Service Unique Identifier, Type of nursing delivery unit/service, Patient/Client population, Volume of nursing delivery unit/service, Nursing delivery unit/service accreditation, Decisional participation, Unit/service complexity, Patient/client accessibility, Method of care delivery, Complexity of clinical decision making
- Nursing Care: Manager demographic profile, Nursing staff and client care support personnel, Nursing care staff demographic profile, Nursing care staff satisfaction
- Financial Resources: Payer type, Reimbursement, Nursing delivery unit/service budget, Expenses
USA NMMDS Goals
NMMDS Data, Measures and Methodology Research
The focus is to identify key variables related to the context of care that influence the quality nursing care. The previous NMMDS data elements are in the process of being updated. Guidelines will be developed for implementation.
NMMDS in Practice
Work with information standards organizations and nurse leaders/managers in diverse healthcare organizations in order to: standardize the coding of NMMDS elements, include NMMDS elements in healthcare information systems, and further develop best practices with appropriate benchmarks. For example, the LOINC Clinical Committee has approved incorporation of NMMDS into LOINC.
NMMDS Integration
Work to link nursing management data with clinical data sets to examine outcomes. Additionally, focus will be on integrating data into accreditation and standards initiatives.
How can you participate?
There is a collaborative relationship for the work related to the USA NMMDS between Dr. Diane Huber and Dr. Connie Delaney, who are the Co-PIs on the development of this data set. For further information, contact Dr. Diane Huber at diane-huber@uiowa.edu or Dr. Connie Delaney at delaney@umn.edu.
References
Huber D, Schumacher L, Delaney C. Nursing Management Minimum Data Set (NMMDS). J Nurs Adm. 1997;27:42-48.
Huber DG, Delaney C, Crossley J, Mehmert M, Ellerbe S. A Nursing Management Minimum Data Set: Significance and development. J Nurs Adm. 1992;22:35-40.
Huber D, Delaney C. The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) research column. the Nursing Management Minimum Data Set. Appl Nurs Res. 1997;10:164-165.
Additional Resources
Return to: Academic Health Center : myU : U of M Home
