title: Discovering health knowledge in the BC nurse practitioners encounter codes.
abstract: Integrating the Nurse Practitioner (NP) role into clinical practice settings is new in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Encounter codes are unique numeric codes assigned to specific types of patient care services performed by NPs. In this study we apply knowledge discovery techniques to analyze the encounter codes extracted from the BC Ministry of Health database to understand the most common practice activities carried out by NPs and what diseases patients sought care for from NPs. The analysis produced important information about NPs' practice patterns. This work leads to a better understanding of NP practice patterns in BC.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Mu-Hsing
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sangster-Gormley
authors.affiliation: School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Borycki
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schreiber
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: April
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Feddema
mesh_terms: D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D001955:British Columbia; D059019:Clinical Coding / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057225:Data Mining / Q000379:methods*; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009737:Nursing Records / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D057184:Practice Patterns, Nurses' / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*