Knowledge and Utilization of Standardized Nursing Language among Nurses in Jos University Teaching Hospital Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract

Standardized Nursing Language is an emerging concept which marks the dawn of a new era in nursing practice. NANDA-I, NIC and NOC (NNN) are three in one Standardized language incorporated within the nursing process. Standardization of nursing terminologies enhances better communication within and across health professionals, thus making nursing visible. The study therefore, aimed at determining the knowledge and utilization of Standardized Nursing Language (NANDA-I, NIC and NOC) and to identify barriers to their use among nurses in Jos University Teaching Hospital Plateau state, Nigeria. The study was a nonexperimental descriptive survey, in which questionnaire was used to gather relevant data from a stratified randomly selected 230 professional nurses in the teaching hospital but 220 were retrieved which represented 95.7% response rate. Data was presented in frequency tables and percentages. Hypotheses were tested using Chi-square. The findings revealed that majority (73.2%) of the respondents had knowledge about SNL especially NANDA-I (82.7%). However, most of the respondents did not know about NIC and NOC (54.5%). Similarly, Most of the respondents (55.9%) utilizes SNLs in their institution especially NANDA-I diagnoses (74.5%), with majority (57%) having adequate levels of utilization of NANDAI,while most of them were not using NIC and NOC in Nursing documentation. Nurses in Jos University Teaching Hospital, generally have adequate knowledge about NANDA-I but have inadequate knowledge about NIC and NOC. They also adequately use NANDA-I but have inadequate usage of NIC and NOC in nursing documentation, for reasons such as inadequate manpower, lack of appropriate equipment, inadequate knowledge etc. Furthermore, chi – square analysis (X2) shows that there is significant relationship between knowledge and utilization of SNLs among nurses in JUTH. Therefore, the need for more awareness on SNL and how to apply them to clinical practice among nurses in the hospital is recommended.