Implications of electronic health record meaningful use legislation for nursing clinical information system development and refinement.

Purpose:  To describe what electronic health record meaningful use requirements mean for nursing clinical information system (CIS) development.

Conclusions:  The nursing CIS in many, if not most hospitals, has a number of critical design inadequacies that constrain the meaningful use of nursing data to ensure quality outcomes for patients and data-based maturing of the nursing profession.

Implications:  It is the responsibility and obligation of nurses to ensure that CISs are designed for the meaningful use of nursing clinical data.