What is the i-NMDS?
The i-NMDS includes the core, essential, minimum data elements to be collected in the course of providing nursing care. The i-NMDS provides a framework for collecting information to describe and examine nursing practice, nursing resources and selected healthcare problems. The i-NMDS was built on the efforts already underway in individual countries.
Why is the i-NMDS Important?
The contribution of nursing care and nurses is essential to health care globally. It is imperative that local, national and international health care infrastructures support the collection and reuse of nursing data. The i-NMDS as a key data set will support:
- Describing client health status, nursing interventions, care outcomes, and resource consumption related to nursing services
- Improving the performance of health care systems and the nurses working within these systems worldwide
- Enhancing the capacity of nursing and midwifery services
- Addressing the nursing shortage, inadequate working conditions, uneven distribution and inappropriate utilization of nursing personnel
- Focusing on the challenges as well as opportunities of global technological innovations
- Testing evidence-based practice improvements; and
- Contributing to improved public health
Defining i-NMDS Elements
The i-NMDS project is under the auspices of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the International Medical Informatics Association Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group (IMIA NI-SIG). Project work is also coordinated with international standards organizations and other stakeholders to assure harmonization of these efforts.
Building on the Nursing Minimum Data Set work of Werley and Lang (1988), the i-NMDS project has identified a framework with three categories of data elements: (a) setting; (b) patient demographics; (c) nursing care. Data elements are identified within each of the three categories.
| 1. | Setting: | agency location, ownership of facility, country system of payment, clinical service type, care personnel (number, gender, training and education, full time equivalent for types of personnel), and ratio of patients to personnel. |
| 2. | Patient demographics: | care episode start and stop dates, country of residence, clinical service type, discharge status, year of birth, gender, and reason for admission. |
| 3. | Nursing care: | Nursing diagnoses, nursing interventions, patient outcomes, and intensity of care. |
Along with building on the work already underway in individual countries, the i-NMDS Project is intended to build on and use the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP®), an ICN Programme. ICNP® concepts can be used to represent the i-NMDS nursing care elements: nursing diagnosis, intervention and outcome. Overall, the i-NMDS can be used to coordinate international data collection and analyses of relevant nursing information to support the description, study, and improvement of nursing practice.
How can you participate?
A number of countries have expressed interest in participating in the i-NMDS project. There is an effort to organize country-based project teams consisting of a representative of the ICN member national nurses association, a representative of IMIA-NI (if applicable), and other experts. Project teams are listed on the iNMDS web site: www.nursing.umn.edu/ICNP . The i-NMDS work is coordinated through the Center for Nursing Minimum Data Set Knowledge Discovery, located at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, USA. The Centre, accredited by ICN as an ICNP® Research and Development Center, provides administrative and resource support for the advancement of the i-NMDS.
