title: Representing nursing activities within a concept-oriented terminological system: evaluation of a type definition.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A type definition, as a component of the categorical structures of a concept-oriented terminology, must support nonambiguous concept representations and, consequently, comparisons of data that are represented using different terminologies. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the adequacy and utility of a proposed type definition for nursing activity concepts.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nursing activity terms (n = 1039) from patient charts and intervention terms from two nursing terminologies (Home Health Care Classification and Omaha System) were decomposed into the attributes of the proposed type definition-Delivery Mode, Activity Focus, and Recipient.
  
  
  METHODS
  Attributes of the type definition were coded as present or absent for each term by multiple raters. In addition, Delivery Mode was rated as Explicit or Implicit and Recipient was rated as Explicit, Implicit, or Ambiguous. The data were summarized using descriptive statistics. Inter-rater reliabilities were calculated for each attribute of the type definition.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All attributes of the type definition were present in 73.9 percent of the chart terms, 91.3 percent of Home Health Care Classification intervention terms, and 63.5 percent of Omaha System intervention terms. While Delivery Mode and Activity Focus were almost universally present, Recipient was problematic. It was rated as ambiguous in 4.8 percent of the chart terms, 8.7 percent of Home Health Care Classification intervention terms, and 36.5 percent of Omaha System intervention terms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study findings supported the adequacy and utility of the type definition. Further research is needed to refine the type definition and its use for representing nursing activity concepts within a concept-oriented terminological system.
authors.affiliation: University of California-San Francisco, USA. suh7001@flux.cpmc.columbia.edu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bakken
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Cashen
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Mendonca
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zieniewicz
mesh_terms: D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000145:classification; D009736:Nursing Process / Q000145:classification*; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D018875:Vocabulary, Controlled