Political dreams, practical boundaries: the case of the Nursing Minimum Data Set, 1983-1990.

The initial development of the Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS) was analyzed based on archival material from Harriet Werley and Norma Lang, two nurses involved with the project, and American Nurses Association materials. The process of identifying information to be included in the NMDS was contentious. Individual nurses argued on behalf of particular data because of a strong belief in how nursing practice (through information collection) should be structured. Little attention was paid to existing practice conditions that would ultimately determine whether the NMDS would be used.