ABSTRACT
The health care environment in which nurses deliver care is experiencing constant change characterized by decreased lengths of stay in acute care settings, increased use of technology, increasing emphasis on computerized patient records and care planning options, increasing markets dominated by managed care, and an emphasis on outcomes rather than process. These changes dictate that nursing as a profession ensures that the work of nursing is visible in this health care environment and included in the data used to make health policy decisions. This article describes the rich history of a Midwestern hospital's use of standardized nursing languages for the last 25 years. Currently this facility is in the process of implementing the Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC). Four projects are described that illustrate the ways nurses can use this language with diagnoses from the North American Nursing Diagnoses Association (NANDA) and interventions from the Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC).
