Biomedical subjects

N R Hardiker

Publications and source records attributed to N R Hardiker.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

Process modelling and simulation for managing clinical care in the community.

'Care in the Community' is an easy catch phrase but a difficult goal. It is a phrase that addresses a current growth area within health care, and one that comes complete with an impressive array of political, economic and social factors that would seem to support the notion of a continuing trend. Technology, specifically information systems, however, has not been successfully cast in a supporting role. There are many reasons for this lack of success but a major one is the mismatch between the understanding of what is required to support the clinical care processes and the specifications of the current systems supplied. Specifically the interest here is in the use and assessment of two computer science techniques, i.e. process modelling and simulation, as suitable means of capturing and communicating requirements so as to bridge the divided and power differential between users and developers of information systems.

Community Health Nursing↗

PubMed1994

Using the PEN&PAD information model to support hospital-based clinical care.

The PEN&PAD model for clinical record systems has been successfully used for medical records in both General Practice and hospital-based care. This paper describes experiences of using the model for developing computer-based nursing records. Results from this work show that there are some problems with directly applying the model to the nursing domain. Whilst the main purpose of the nursing record is to document and communicate a patient's care, it has several other, possibly incompatible, roles. Furthermore, the structure and content of the information contained within the nursing record is heavily influenced by the need for the nursing profession to visibly demonstrate the philosophical frameworks underlying their work. By providing new insights into the professional background of nursing records, this work has highlighted the need for nurses to clarify and make explicit, their uses of information, and also provided them with some tools to assist in this task.

Computer Systems↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Data entry in computer-based care planning.

If computer-based care planning is to be acceptable to nurses, they must be able to enter care plans in a flexible and intuitive manner that does not distort their observations about the patient. The limitations of existing computer-based data entry techniques are discussed. A novel method of data entry called Predictive Data Entry is presented, and the underlying model of nursing terminology which supports it is described. The results of user evaluations are discussed.

Decision Making, Computer-Assisted↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Modeling nursing terminology using the GRAIL representation language.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study is to explore the use of formal systems to model nursing terminology. DESIGN: GRAIL is a formal, compositional terminologic language, closely related to frame-based systems and conceptual graphs, which allows concepts to be formed from atomic-level primitives and automatically classified in a multiple hierarchy. A formal model of the alpha version of the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) classification of nursing interventions was constructed in GRAIL. MEASUREMENTS: The model was analyzed for completeness, coherence, clarity, expressiveness, usefulness, and maintainability. RESULTS: GRAIL is capable of representing the complete set of atomic-level concepts within the ICNP as well as certain cross-mappings to other vocabularies. It also has the potential to represent many more concepts, to an arbitrary level of detail. CONCLUSIONS: Formal systems such as GRAIL can overcome many of the difficulties associated with traditional nursing vocabularies without restricting the level of detail needed to describe nursing care.

Models, Theoretical↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Standards for nursing terminology.

Terminology work in nursing has given rise to an increasing number of nursing terminologies. These generally take the form of controlled vocabularies. Because of the limitations of the controlled vocabulary approach, individual terminologies tend to be tuned to meet the specific needs of their intended users. Differences between terminologies are now a significant barrier to the comparison and interchange of health information. To agree on a single, multipurpose terminology would be problematic. However, several options for resolving unnecessary differences between nursing terminologies are currently being explored by international standards bodies and other groups, such as the U.S. Nursing Vocabulary Summit. One such option is the use of a terminology model to facilitate evolution toward a more coherent range of terminologies. The authors describe the motivation behind the development of a standard for nursing terminologies. They explain how a terminology model might form the basis for such a standard through a description of the approach taken by CEN TC251 (the Health Informatics Technical Committee of the European Committee for Standardization). They also discuss possible limitations of standardization.

Nursing↗