
112 | CHAPTER 7 Developing Standardized Terminologies to Support Nursing Practice
nursing will go unrecognized, and the nursing component of electronic health
record systems will remain at best rudimentary. Not least, without consistent ter-
minology the nursing knowledge base will suffer, in terms of development and in
terms of access, thereby delaying the integration of evidence-based health care
into nursing practice. External pressures compound the problem. For example, in
the United States, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical
Health (HITECH) Act, signed in January 2009, provides a financial incentive for
the use of electronic ...