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New ICNP Catalogue advances nurses knowledge and practice of pain management in children

Geneva, Switzerland, 3 November 2012 — The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is delighted to announce the release of a new publication, Pediatric Pain Management, in partnership with the Children’s National of Washington, DC, in the United States. The publication presents a dataset that was developed and validated by nurse experts at Children’s National Medical Center. The dataset is encoded with the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP®) for use in electronic health records. The pain management catalogue is designed to be useful to pediatric nurses throughout the world. Nurses have been leading advances in both the knowledge of and attitudes toward the management of pain in children. Management of acute and chronic pain is recognized as an important function for nursing. The development of this ICNP Catalogue for Pediatric Pain Management reflects the significance of ongoing science and positions of nurses globally to advance the knowledge and practice of pain management in children. This catalogue was developed by nurses who identified and organized concepts within the Catalogue based on evidence. The final product is intended to promote professional practice and advance research in this area.

ICNP®, a program of ICN, is an international standard nursing terminology for use in electronic health records. Using ICNP® as the coding structure for this project, the Children’s National Medical Center can demonstrate the feasibility and value of mapping current nursing information to a standardized terminology, and to better describe and evaluate nursing practice. ICNP® is part of the ICN eHealth Program, whose vision is to transform nursing through the application of information and communication technology.

“The release of this new ICNP Catalogue represents another innovative way in which nurses are transforming health and health care,” said David Benton, Chief Executive Officer of the International Council of Nurses. “It a useful tool at the point of care, improving nursing practice and patient and family outcomes.” 

This collaboration has resulted in an ICNP-enabled data set that may serve to advance nursing care and nursing science in managing pediatric pain. By sharing this resource with other countries, nurses can participate in the development of heath information systems that support their practice and provide accurate and relevant data for quality improvement and policy decisions.

“As the primary advocate and partner for our pediatric patients, their families and their care team, it is our responsibility as nurses to be able to communicate effectively and consistently about their pain experience so that our patients’ receive the care they need,” stated Pamela Hinds, PhD, RN, Associate Director of the Center for Translational Science and Director of the Department of Nursing Research and Quality Outcomes at Children’s Research Institute at Children’s National. “For nurses at Children’s National, it is our mission to develop and implement evidence-based paediatric nursing practices to improve patient care and the Paediatric Pain Management Catalogue will help nurses around the globe to advocate for their patients and will help researchers gather data to develop new nursing pain interventions.”

Note for Editors

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations representing the millions of nurses worldwide. Operated by nurses and leading nursing internationally, ICN works to ensure quality care for all and sound health policies globally.

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