A framework for harmonizing terminologies to support representation of nursing practice in electronic records.

Nursing terminology development efforts in the United States and globally provide concept coverage across many domains of nursing practice. Efforts to integrate concepts from across terminology systems into a single reference terminology support broad concept coverage but do not provide a means to leverage the full benefits of the individual terminology systems. The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility of harmonizing the 198 Clinical Care Classification (CCC) System core intervention concepts with intervention concepts in the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP®) as a means to leverage both the information model components of the CCC system and the broad concept coverage of the ICNP®. Findings suggest that the CCC system and ICNP® are largely interoperable and a common framework underlying the two terminology systems provides a foundation for harmonization.