Describing use of nursing interventions for three groups of patients.

PURPOSE To describe the nursing interventions used most frequently during an acute hospital stay for three patient groups. METHODS Analysis of nursing interventions documented by use of the Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) contained in an electronic clinical database obtained from 33 general inpatient units in one large health care facility from July 1, 1998, to June 30, 2002. The numbers of hospitalizations for each sample in the analyses were: 1,435 in the heart failure group, 567 in the hip fracture procedures group, and 11,756 in the fall prevention group. FINDINGS The mean number of interventions done at least once during a single hospitalization ranged from 18 to 22 for the three samples. For the total number of patient hospitalizations for each group, the number of interventions ranged from 94 for the hip fracture procedures sample to 182 for the fall prevention sample. Seven interventions were done twice or more a day in at least 20% of the sample in all three groups. Patterns of interventions during the first 6 days of care differed by intervention and sample, indicating that nursing care was individualized. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate the types of information that can result from analysis of actual clinical nursing data documented with standardized language (Nursing Interventions Classification) in a nursing information system. The knowledge of nursing interventions used in clinical practice has major implications for staff development and nursing education. The information is also useful in making staffing decisions for different types of patient populations.