Issues in the integration of standardized nursing language for populations: a study of drug-exposed infants' records.

This study investigates nursing documentation thereby illustrating issues in the integration of standardized nursing language for vulnerable populations. The records of 145 drug-exposed infants referred to a VNA for home care services from 1988-94 were reviewed to determine the most frequent nursing problem statements, interventions, and outcomes. When adjustments were made using key words, the most frequent nursing problem statements involved "caretaking/parenting." Intervention language did not describe nursing actions which could be linked to standard language, even by key words. Outcomes did not appear to be attributable to nursing interventions. The discussion section considers issues which must be resolved before standardized labels can ethically be applied to populations.