The N-CODES project: the first year.

Clinical decision making is a complex task, and particularly challenging for the novice nurse. Little assistance is available, and decision supports such as standardized guidelines are difficult to access in the hectic flow of practice. The Nursing Computer Decision Support (N-CODES) project, directed by investigators for nursing and computer engineering, addresses this problem by developing a prototype of a point-of-care system to deliver clinical knowledge via a handheld computer.

Knowledge acquisition, synthesis, and validation: a model for decision support systems.

Background: Decision tools such as clinical decision support systems must be built on a solid foundation of nursing knowledge. However, current methods to determine the best evidence do not include a broad range of knowledge sources. As clinical decision support systems will be designed to assist nurses when making critical decisions, methods need to be devised to glean the best possible knowledge.