Discussions related to the development of an international nursing minimum/essential data set (i-NMDS) have been ongoing for several years within the nursing community. The International Medical Informatics Association Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group (IMIA NI SIG) Concept Representation Working Group and the International Council for Nurses (ICN) are co-sponsoring a project to develop the i-NMDS. Moreover, the development, implementation, and ongoing use of a valid and reliable i-NMDS the project depends on a strong collaboration among the international nursing minimum data set (i-NMDS) informatics representative (s), the IMIA NI representative, and the respective national nursing organization (NNA) ICN representative in each country. A Steering Committee with international representation guides the work (see below). The purpose of the i-NMDS, a specific international set of essential, minimum nursing data with uniform definitions and measures, is to support international profiling, trending, and benchmarking of nursing practice to ensure delivery and policy support of the highest quality, safe, effective, and evidence-based nursing care. Phases of the project include: 1. Conduct an integrative review of the literature related to national minimum data sets; 2. Establish national collaborating teams and collaborating researchers; 3. Conduct an international survey to identify i-NMDS elements and related definitions; 4. Design a pilot study to test the proposed i-NMDS; 5. Conduct a pilot study*; 6. Implement the i-NMDS 7. Support the development of national minimum data sets which are congruent with the-NMDS; and 8) Facilitate i-NMDS research that focuses on international profiling, trending, and benchmarking of nursing practice to ensure delivery among a variety of international collaborating groups. *Data analysis of the pilot study will include the mapping of local terms used for nursing diagnosis, interventions, and outcomes to the ICNP® terminology. After collection of the data, a first activity will be to map the locally entered terms to the relevant ICNP® terminology. Rules for mapping will be used and multiple raters will be used to increase reliability. The ICNP® will be used as the ‘end’ terminology for reporting results. Study results will be submitted to ICN - ICNP® Programme.