Intensive care nursing scoring system. Part 1: Classification of nursing diagnoses.

The introduction of computer-based information management systems to intensive care units offers new possibilities to describe and document the content of nursing. In different countries and health care organizations, the hospital culture and the approach taken by nurses and medical colleagues determine what, how and to what extent nursing is documented. There are nursing diagnosis classifications that are used in North America, such as NANDA (North American Nursing Diagnosis Association), and the European Union Telenurse project will promote the use of the ICNP (International Classifications of Nursing Practice) throughout Europe. The above classifications are used to describe individual, family or community responses to potential or actual health problems or life processes. But there is no nursing diagnosis classification that would take into account both the aims and the unique context of intensive care nursing. This first article describes part of our research: the action research process and the result of the development of a nursing diagnosis classification compatible with the goals of intensive care in three adult intensive care units in the Oulu University Hospital. The classification of nursing diagnoses is part of the Intensive Care Nursing Scoring System (ICNSS) which was developed in the course of this study. The other parts deal with nursing outcomes and nursing interventions. ICNSS is used to facilitate information exchange in the process of intensive care nursing and to describe the nursing workload.