ACENDIO

Nursing Diagnosis, Apr-Jun 2002

The Special Conference in Vienna was a great success. A total of 225 participants from 21 countries attended. The Proceedings have been published and include presentations such as the NANDA Taxonomy II (Marjory Gordon); Nursing Interventions Classification, overview and current status (Gloria Bulechek); the clinical adequacy of the Nursing Outcomes Classification outcomes, a report of field testing (Marion Johnson); an overview of the Home Health Care Classification System (Virginia Saba); the Omaha System (Karen Martin), Einheit in Vielfalt-Wie die ICNP der Pflege eine gemeinsame professionelle Sprache gibt (Matthias Hinz and Fran Dorre); Die Internationale Klassifikation der Funktionfahigkeit, Behinderung and Gesundheit ICF (ICIDH) (Rudolf Widmer); the development and use of the VIPS model in Nordic countries (Margareta Ehnfors); IWP system for community health nurses, classification, nursing record, and training program (Jolande van Loon); Analyse and Transfer des Verfahrens PLAISIR in Deutschland (Rolf Gennrich); the International Nursing Minimum Data Set (I-NMDS) (William Goossen); and Standardization and Nursing Terminology (Anne Casey).

In his preface, Prof. Dr. Georges C.M. Evers states that this book and conference are unique because they contain original and up-to-date contributions of a great number of nursing experts in the domain of language and classification development. The richness of it all lies in the combination of contributions of both North American and European authors. You can order the proceedings (251 pages) for US$ 25.00 each (including postage) from Mr. N.E. Oud, Hakfort 621, 1102 LA Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Deposit your payment (free of charge for the recipient) in his bank account number 2397004 of the Postbank Amsterdam, SWIFT Nr. INGB NL 2A - Foreign Operations - PO Box 1800, 1000 BV Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in the name of N.E.Oud.

William Goossen, president of ACENDIO, invites all readers to Paris, France, for the Fourth Biennial European Conference of the Association for Common European Nursing Diagnoses, Interventions, and Outcomes. The conference theme is "Making Nursing Visible -- Showing and communicating the use of classifications and the results of nursing data collection, an issue for nursing practice."

Nursing terminology and classifications are topics that are alive and kicking in Europe. European healthcare consumers are increasingly crossing borders and require healthcare wherever they are. Nursing is growing in its professional role and is willing to meet the many consumer demands. We are developing adequate tools for this. However, many countries suffer from nursing shortages, and organizational problems. Using standardized nursing terminology, classifications, and data collection procedures are becoming increasingly important to support the European healthcare system in the 21st century. Applied information and communication technology becomes an important factor in this electronic age.

Nurses are now able to describe their practice, they can measure it to some extent, evaluate it, study it, research it, and influence the healthcare policy of their hospital and country. It is all there, and this conference will show you. We will really focus on the practical applicability of nursing terminologies, classifications and data collections. Through describing care, nursing can be evaluated for their contribution to the national health care and the profession can demonstrate the effects of nursing care on patient outcomes to patients, themselves, colleagues, and other healthcare workers.

Since 1995, ACENDIO has supported the development of nursing's professional language by providing conferences and a network for nurses in the different European countries to promote and advance common terminologies, classifications, and data sets to describe the practice of nursing. ACENDIO organizes biannual conferences with the aim to offer nurses and nurse researchers the possibility to present their (research) work in this field, to exchange information, to network, to promote international collaboration, and to serve as a forum for the presentation of papers, posters, workshops and seminars. The accent of the Paris conference is to demonstrate and to communicate the usefulness of classifications and the results of nursing data collection for nursing practice. The official languages are English and French for the main conference and French for the 1-day preconference. Simultaneous interpreting into English, French, and German will be offered for sessions in the main hall.