A resolution of the ICN's Council of National Representatives in 1989 asked that ICN encourage member National Nurses Associations (NNA's) to become involved in developing classification systems for nursing care, nursing information management systems and nursing data sets, and to provide tools that nurses in all countries could use to identify nursing practice and describe nursing and its contributions to health.

The International Classification for Nursing Practice Project, begun in 1990 by the International Council of Nurses, aims to develop a standardized vocabulary and classification of nursing phenomena (nursing diagnoses), nursing interventions, and nursing outcomes which can be used in both electronic and paper records to describe and compare nursing practice across clinical settings. An Alpha Version of the Classification of Nursing Phenomenon and Nursing Interventions was released for further development and field testing in 1996 and an outline for a classification of Nursing Outcomes in 1997. Nurses around the world, and other classification experts, have been invited to participate in the development of the Beta Version which it is hoped will be ready for release in 1999.

The goals of the project, which were set out in the initial proposal to the ICN Board of Directors are:

1. To develop an ICNP with specified process and product components.

2. To achieve recognition by the national and international nursing communities.
3. To ensure that the ICNP is compatible with and complementary to the WHO Family of Classifications, and the work of other standardization groups such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and related groups including the Comite European de Normalisation (CEN), and to secure inclusion of ICNP in relevant classifications.
4. To achieve utilization of ICNP by nurses at country level for the development of national databases.
5. To establish an international data set and a framework that incorporates the ICNP, the nursing minimum data set, a nursing resource data set, and regulatory data.

These goals continue to provide the mission and the framework for the project.

Testing the Alpha Version

The Alpha Version is currently being tested in various ways and further participation is welcomed. All member National Nurses Associations have been asked for feedback, and documentation for submission of new terms and changes to existing terms is available. A process for managing feedback is being developed.

In Europe the TELENURSE project has enabled the Alpha Version to be translated into several languages and is testing aspects of the use of ICNP in electronic patient records. Validation studies are being undertaken at Marquette University and by individual researchers in several countries.

The ICNP Country Project, funded for 3 years by the W K Kellogg Foundation, will assist ICN to focus particularly on describing nursing practice in community-based practice and primary health care. Country work groups in several countries of Africa and Latin America will explore and develop new processes and look critically at the nature and structure of ICNP as well as contributing new terms. The project also includes publication of a newsletter to disseminate information and ideas.