A Comparison of Data Elements of Nursing Minimum Data Set

Standard data processing plays an important role in patient care. Nursing data forms the first level of nursing informatics. These are essential tools for documentation of nursing process by methodology of assessment, diagnosis, interventions, outcomes, evaluation and documentation of patient care. Nursing minimum data set (NMDS) is the first action for standardization of gathering unified and essential nursing data for using in multiple sets and patient groups. The objective of this research was comparison of data elements of nursing minimum data set. This was a descriptive-comparative study and was done at 2009. Nursing minimum data set in the US, Thailand, Belgium, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, Swiss surveyed. Data collection was performed through internet search, books and journals. Results presented in statistical tables. Findings showed that all countries had a national NMDS. In all NMDSs, Nursing data elements divided to three groups: Nursing care, patient and service elements. There is a nursing minimum data set for nursing management in US. There is no NMDS in Iran. Since every countries of this study have a domestic NMDS and also there is no standard in Iran for which data elements must include in Electronic Health Records, then creating an Iranian Nursing Minimum Data Set (IrNMDS) is essential. For identifying Iranian NMDS, we recommend that a professional and legal organization administer to creating of a NMDS.