Describing precisely what nurses do.

Numerous important papers written by nurses and other scientists to improve nursing practice are not read by many nurses because two of the common ways authors use to describe what nurses do obscures the applicability of studies to nurses in general. Interventions (aka, procedures, skills, tasks) used and populations studied, including diseases, are less robust indicators of research results than are tests of nursing theory. Further, some of these important papers are not stored in or retrieved by accessing the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature database.

Nurses' Own Recordkeeping: The Nursing Minimum Data Set Revisited.

There is no consistent, standardized, concise method for nurses to record information about their patients and clients that is conducive to store, retrieve, and use in patient and client care; to improve professional self-development; and to use in collaboration with patients and clients, their families, other nurses, doctors, hospitals, and health systems. Nurses gauge the health status of their patients and clients every day and are now in a position both to record their impressions for their own use and to share them with colleagues who care for the same patients and clients. What is now needed is a way to record these clinical impressions within an authoritative format that is related to the depth and breadth of the clinical literature related to nursing and the needs of the patients and clients nurses serve.