Evaluation of the nursing intervention classification for use by flight nurses.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of the study was to determine if terminology used for nursing interventions in air transport records is consistent with the Nursing Intervention Classification (NIC) system. METHODS: A retrospective descriptive design was used to examine the terminology used in air transport records. The sample included the transport records for 46 cardiac patients transported by air. RESULTS: Of the 7958 data elements obtained from the transport records, 1435 were nursing interventions. Ninety-nine percent of the interventions could be classified into the NIC. However, 8.5% of the NIC interventions listed did not reflect the advanced level of practice demonstrated by the flight nurses. CONCLUSION: The results of the study suggest that the current version of the NIC was a useful but not a sufficient classification system for flight nurse documentation. More than 90% of the interventions could be categorized using the NIC. However, modifications are needed to reflect the advanced level of practice used by flight nurses and deal with the inconsistencies in the data classification system structure.