Nursing outcomes classification in the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms: A cross-mapping validation

The Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms is a reference terminology that can be used to cross-map standardized healthcare languages across healthcare disciplines. It is important to ensure that the knowledge represented in individual source systems has been preserved during the process of cross-mapping to the target system. The purpose of this study was to validate the cross-mapping between the Nursing Outcomes Classification and the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms. The methodology to detect incorrectly assigned (mis-assigned) concepts from the source system to the target system was developed by the authors. The methodology compared knowledge representations of Nursing Outcomes Classification concepts in both systems by using human expert judgments. Each concept's meaning is defined by both the structures and definitions in the concept model. Sixteen (4.8%) mis-assigned Nursing Outcomes Classification concepts in the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms, and one inconsistent concept representation in the Nursing Outcomes Classification were found. Results and recommendations were given to both the Nursing Outcomes Classification and Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms developers for consideration of future system improvements.