What nurses do: use of the ISO Reference Terminology Model for Nursing Action as a framework for analyzing MICU nursing practice patterns.

This study utilized the ISO RTM for Nursing Action as a model to decompose nursing actions and as a framework for analyzing the practice patterns of nurses working in a medical intensive care unit (MICU). Observations were made in a 25-bed MICU and nursing actions recorded in terms of model attributes. 1013 actions were observed; decomposed into the ISO RTM categories, they represented 68 distinct actions, 166 targets, 6 recipients of care, 81 means, 16 routes and 115 sites. The most frequent actions were 'assessing' (19.1%) and 'documenting' (10.5%). The most frequent target was 'medication' (8.5%) and the most frequent recipient of care was 'patient' (94.1%). Data revealed nurses perform, yet do not document all actions. Thus in this setting, the existing documentation system does not adequately represent all aspects of nursing practice. The ISO RTM permits evaluation of the depth and breadth of nursing care by identifying all nursing actions.