title: Collaborative development and maintenance of health terminologies.
abstract: The quest for a standardized terminology that can meet the varying needs of healthcare practice, and requirements for secondary use, is ongoing. The number of potential users and the number of potential uses for standardized terminologies make collaborative development, rather than the traditional de jure approach, an imperative, and there appears to be significant worldwide interest in this area. In this article we describe an initiative of the International Council of Nurses (ICN), ICNP C-Space (Collaborative Space), which utilized a social media platform to encourage and facilitate global collaborative development of its terminology, the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP(®)). We report on several years of experience of managing the platform and provide valuable lessons on collaborative terminology development. Our experience suggests that web-based platforms such as ICNP C-Space certainly offer the promise of a broader, wider-reaching, and more inclusive community of contributors to the terminology development process. However, there are also potential limitations for which we provide practical recommendations.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work, University of Salford, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hardiker
authors.affiliation: Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA.
authors.forename: Tae Youn
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
authors.forename: Claudia C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Bartz
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coenen
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
authors.forename: Kay
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jansen
mesh_terms: D007392:International Council of Nurses; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000145:classification*; D048108:Nursing Informatics; D018875:Vocabulary, Controlled