Purpose: To analyze the features, development, and research of the Omaha System, the Iowa Nursing Intervention Classification, and the Home Health Care Classification and provide a critical review of the unique components of each.
Organizing framework: Five elements: achievement of original purpose, language used, ease of computerizing format, clinical utility, and linkage of the Nursing Minimum Data set (NMDS) nursing care elements.
Conclusions: Further testing and development of nursing classification systems should be done to determine the general value of nursing classification, the extent to which the original goals and purposes of classification are met, and to identify the unique features and contributions of each system. Further testing is important to determine the strengths, weaknesses, and applicability of the various systems for capturing the elements of the NMDS for different care settings, care givers, and patient populations.
Implications: Nursing classification may eventually lead to naming and describing the work of nurses. Research findings will continue to provide information leading to a unified nursing language system that describes the practice of nursing in local, regional, national, and international health-care data sets used for research, clinical, education, policy, and administrative purposes.