2007

19 February 2007

Nursing language to enter health software

The specialist terminology used by nurses in New Zealand is to be captured and made available in health software under a joint project involving healthcare software company iSOFT and Wellington's Victoria University.

With the support of iSOFT and the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, Shona Wilson, a PhD student at the university's Graduate School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health, will develop a model for the management of information collected by nurses to support nursing practice in New Zealand.

The foundation has awarded a three-year grant under the Technology for Industry Fellowship PhD education programme. The fellowship enables full-time students to complete research and development projects in collaboration with industry partners.

Shona says that so far New Zealand nurses have not been well served by technology, as most current processes are manual and time-consuming and nursing classification schemes are not used to document care and patient outcomes electronically.

She said: "For example, in a hospital setting, if a doctor orders a medical or surgical intervention, health software includes vocabulary that picks up everything from an amputation to a tonsillectomy, but it doesn’t cover the language for the associated work that nurses do, which ranges from monitoring vital signs to managing patients’ pain levels, attending to hygiene needs and providing patient education. To do that, we need to have a standardised vocabulary that reflects New Zealand nursing practice.

“Nursing is the largest workforce group in the country and yet it is unable to measure the contribution it makes to the health of New Zealanders. The project aims to begin a process toward measuring the impact of nursing services on healthcare outcomes for New Zealanders and sharing nursing information between healthcare providers to ensure continuity of care across healthcare settings."

Nigel Lutton, managing director, iSOFT Australia and New Zealand, commented: “We welcome the opportunity to help establish a standard nursing classification scheme and provide all the support needed. The knowledge gained can be used in iSOFT clinical applications globally, including HealthViews and our next-generation products.”

iSOFT’s commitment to the research project includes providing access to its HealthViews electronic health record solution to capture nursing data and study current nursing vocabulary. Originally developed in New Zealand, HealthViews is a web-based solution used extensively in clinical practice settings. iSOFT is also providing office facilities, staff and a business mentor.

Professor Jan Duke, head of the university's graduate school, says Shona’s research is filling an important gap.

“Standardised vocabularies for nursing practice have been developed in other countries but they are not always directly transferable," said Prof Duke. "By studying the use of a reliable, standardised vocabulary within iSOFT's health record software in the New Zealand health information context, we’ll be able to begin to assess accurately the total contribution of nursing to the health system. We’re also looking at developing courses to fill the gap between nursing practice and information technology.”

For further information, please contact:

Jacki Willing

iSOFT Australia and New Zealand

Tel: +61 (0) 2 9448 4000 ext 4039

Fax: +61 (0) 2 9448 4001

Email: jacki.willing@isoftaus.com.au