i-NMDS

i-NMDS (International Nursing Minimum Data Set)

• What is the i-NMDS?
• i-NMDS Projects
• i-NMDS Steering Committee

What is the i-NMDS?

The i-NMDS includes the core, essential, minimum data elements to be collected in the course of providing nursing care. The i-NMDS also provides a framework for collecting information to examine specific healthcare problems and nursing resources. These data can provide information to describe, compare, and examine nursing practice. The i-NMDS was built on the efforts already underway in individual countries. It is imperative that the national health care infrastructure supports the collection and reuse of nursing data.

Why is the i-NMDS Important?

The contribution of nursing care and nurses is essential to health care globally. The i-NMDS as a key data set will support:

• Describing the human phenomena, nursing interventions, care outcomes, and resource consumption related to nursing services;
• Improving the performance of health care systems and the nurses working within these systems worldwide;
• Enhancing the capacity of nursing and midwifery services;
• Addressing the nursing shortage, inadequate working conditions, uneven distribution and inappropriate utilization of nursing personnel;
• Focusing on the challenges as well as opportunities of global technological innovations;
• Testing evidence-based practice improvements; and
• Contributing to improved public health.

Defining i-NMDS Elements

The International Nursing Minimum Data Set (i-NMDS) project is under the auspices of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the International Medical Informatics Association Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group (IMIA NI-SIG). Project work also is coordinated with international standards organizations and other stakeholders to assure harmonization of these efforts.

Building on the Nursing Minimum Data Set work of Werley and Lang (1988), the i-NMDS project has identified a framework of three categories of data elements: (a) setting, (b) patient demographics, and (c) nursing care. Data elements are identified within each of the three categories:

• Setting: agency location, ownership of facility, country system of payment, clinical service type, care personnel (number, gender, training and education, full time equivalent for types of personnel), ratio of patients to personnel.
• Patient demographics: care episode start and stop dates, country of residence, clinical service type, discharge status, year of birth, gender, reason for admission.
• Nursing care: Nursing diagnoses, nursing interventions, patient outcomes, intensity of care.

Along with building on the work already underway in individual countries, the i-NMDS Project is intended to build on and support another ICN initiative, the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP®). The ICNP® concepts can be used within the i-NMDS to represent the elements of nursing diagnosis, intervention and outcome. Overall, the i-NMDS project focuses on coordinating ongoing international data collection and analyses or relevant nursing information to support the description, study, and improvement of nursing practice.

i-NMDS Projects

i-NMDS Concepts

Many countries have and are developing i-NMDS. Our goal is to provide the link to support countries in development of their own i-NMDS.

i-NMDS Collaboration

Through our website, we are linking countries to compare similarities and differences in their i-NMDS. We also support collaboration of studies and the use of data to influence health policy.

i-NMDS Leadership

Each country needs it own leaders in the effort to develop and use nursing data. The Center will create guidelines for development and use of i-NMDS.

How can you participate?

Each participating country has a project team consisting of a representative of the ICN member National Nurses Association, the IMIA-NI representative (if applicable), and one or more nursing informatics experts. Project teams are listed on the i-NMDS web site. The
i-NMDS work is coordinated through the ICN Accredited Research and Development Center, the Center for Nursing Minimum Data Set Knowledge Discovery, located the the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, Minneapolis, MN USA. The Center, with Dr. Connie Delaney, Dean and Professor serving as Director and Dr. Bonnie Westra, Assistant Professor as Co-Director, provides administrative and resource support for the advancement of the i-NMDS.

i-NMDS Steering Committee

Additional Resources

• American Nurses Association:
  http://nursingworld.org/npii/terminologies.htm

• American Medical Informatics Association Nursing Informatics Working Group:
  http://www.amia.org/mbrcenter/wg/ni/

• International Council of Nurses:
  http://www.icn.ch/icnp.htm

• International Medical Informatics Association:
  http://www.imia.org/Action.Lasso?-Response=WG_profile.html&-Search=Action&-Table=CGI&-MaxRecords=1&-SkipRecords=16&-Database=organizations&-SortField=workgroup_SIG&-SortOrder=ascending&type=WGSIG

• World Health Organization:
  http://www.who.int/hrh/nursing_midwifery/