MIE 2008 Göteborg 26-28 May eHealth beyond the horizon – get IT there Workshop description The state of art of standardizing nursing language in European countries Kaija SARANTO a, Anna EHRENBERG b, , Asta THORODDSEN c , Walter SERMEUS d a Department of Health Policy and Management, University of Kuopio, Finland b Department of Health and Social Science, Högskolan Dalarna, Sweden c Faculty of Nursing, University of Island, ,Iceland d Department of Public Health, Catholic University Leuven, Belgium Abstract. The use of standardized nursing languages varies between and even within different European countries. Standardization of a nursing language is a demanding process which requires substantial methodological and technological knowledge as well as a lot of cultural experience in terminology development work. A survey is carried out to describe the current state of art of the use of standards in nursing documentation. A web-based questionnaire is targeted to members of the Association for Common European Nursing Diagnoses, Interventions and Outcomes (ACENDIO) and all others interested in nursing language development. Based on the results the purpose is to identify those key components which have been successful in the adoption of a standardized nursing terminology. The results are disseminated and discussed with international colleagues in the workshop. The ultimate aim is to enhance the standardization activities in existing and evolving networks in Europe as well as in other parts of the world. Keywords, Standards, EPR, Terminology, Classification Background The standardization of nursing language has been in process already for many years. However, standardized structures and terminologies for nursing recording are not very common within European countries. [1,2] The most common model to structure nursing notes in health records is the nursing process model presented by the World Health Organization (WHO) [3]. According to the model the nursing process can be divided into four up to six phases based on the decision making theory. Assessment, planning, intervention and evaluation are the most commonly used phases in the decision making process. Nursing diagnosis has been added as an independent phase after assessment in many countries to emphasize the importance of naming the outcomes of assessment [4,5] . Many countries have followed the development work of