Icnp and Telematic Applications for Nurses in Europe The Telenurse Experience

This book reports the achievements of Telenurse. Telenurse is a project within the R&TD programme of the EU dedicated to promoting the use of the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) as a common language for nursing in Europe. The development of ICNP was launched in 1989 by the International Council of Nurses (ICN), which represents 118 national nurses' associations world wide. The development of ICNP thus enjoys a very broad international support. This is the first time that an attempt is made in nursing to develop a common nomenclature and classification reflecting the specific clinical realities of nursing practice. Telenurse promotes the use of ICNP in Europe according to a double strategy involving the following approaches: 1. Organisation of dissemination conferences on a European level and dissemination meetings on a national level. Dissemination also includes the translation of the alpha version of ICNP from English into 12 European languages and launching ICNP on the web. On a European level two dissemination conferences have been organised and held, viz., the first conference in 1996 in Athens, Greece, and now the second conference in 1998 in Sesimbra, Portugal. The presentations of both conferences are published by IOS Press. In fact, Telenurse dissemination activities have been global as the Telenurse project in 1998 has been presented on both the 2nd ICNP workshop in Santiago de Chile, Chile, for the Latin American Region of ICN, including representatives from Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela, and the 2nd ICNP workshop in Taipei, Taiwan, for the Asia/Pacific Region of ICN, including representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Taiwan and Western Samoa. 2. Building of simple demonstrators illustrating possible real uses of ICNP in shared electronic patient records. Telenurse has focused on two aspects of the use of ICNP in electronic records. Firstly, entry of ICNP data in relation to daily systematic documentation of nursing care and secondly, statistical analysis of ICNP data extracted from the electronic patient records in relation to the development of clinical quality and resource management. In relation to the DataIn phase Telenurse spans both streams within the group of projects concerned with electronic patient records, viz. the stream concerned with the architecture of electronic patient records and the stream concerned with the architecture of terminology's. In relation to the DataOut phase the small scale demonstrators of electronic patient records have been equipped with data extraction mechanisms for clinical databases. These developments have been supplemented by software showing how the results of the analysis of data stored in the databases can be fed back to clinical practice using electronic means.Mortensen, Randi Annikki is the author of 'Icnp and Telematic Applications for Nurses in Europe The Telenurse Experience' with ISBN 9789051994544 and ISBN 9051994540.