title: Standardized language--making nursing practice count.
abstract: Language in nursing has never communicated the same clinical problems in a clear, precise, or consistent manner. Clinical information systems require standardized terms and definitions to help clinicians with electronic documentation. The future of nursing depends on systematic efforts to label and define nursing contributions to health care. Standardized nursing languages provide a structure to manage nursing data in a computerized patient record. Learning about and working with standardized nursing languages will ensure that nursing contributions are an integral component of any medical record. This article defines standardized language, explores standardized languages in nursing, and outlines the various nursing languages for clinical practice that have been recognized by the American Nurses Association.
authors.affiliation: AORN, Inc, Denver, USA.
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Beyea
mesh_terms: D019992:Databases as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D009729:Nursing / Q000145:classification*; D013527:Perioperative Nursing / Q000145:classification*; D012015:Reference Standards; D009626:Terminology as Topic