8.5: Nursing Interventions II: Selecting and Classifying the Nursing Interventions

Creating and executing a nursing diagnosis helps nurses plan care and guide patient, family, and community interventions. They are developed based on a patient's physical evaluation and support measuring the outcomes. It is not recommended to select random interventions throughout the planning process. Instead, consider the following six essential factors when choosing interventions:

1. Characteristics of the nursing diagnosis
2. Goals and expected outcomes
3. Evidence basis (e.g., research or proven practice guidelines) for the interventions
4. Feasibility of the interventions
5. Acceptability to the patient
6. Competence of the nurse

In addition, when considering treatment options, nurses should evaluate their patient's needs, priorities, and previous experiences. Such information will help the nurse choose the most appropriate intervention with the highest chance of achieving the desired result.

Nurses should examine resources such as nursing literature, standard protocols or recommendations, the Nursing Interventions Classification critical pathways, policy or procedure manuals, or textbooks when developing a care plan for a specific patient. Collaboration with other healthcare providers is also beneficial.

The Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC), developed by the Iowa Intervention Project, is a comprehensive, research-based, standardized classification of nurses' interventions. It is helpful for clinical documentation, care communication across settings, data integration across systems, effectiveness research, productivity measurement, competency evaluation, reimbursement, and curricular design. It is a collection of nurse interventions that provide standardization to facilitate communication of nursing care across all healthcare settings and aid in comparing results.

There are three levels in the NIC model: domains, classes, and interventions.

• The seven domains of level one are basic physiological, complex physiological, behavioral, safety, family, health system, and community.
• The second level contains 30 classes that provide clinically valuable categories for selecting interventions.
• The third level has 542 interventions and any treatment types a nurse performs. These interventions are chosen based on clinical judgment and knowledge to improve patient outcomes.

Nursing interventions are selected based on several factors.

First, they should be based on the desired patient outcome. This helps to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention.

Second, the interventions should consider the characteristics of the nursing diagnosis.

This aims to alter etiological factors, treat signs and symptoms, or eliminate risk factors.

Third, the intervention should be based on evidence-based research. This helps nurses implement and evaluate interventions based on specific patient groups.

In cases where research in a particular field may be inadequate, expert opinion or scientific principles can guide the intervention.

Fourth, interventions should be selected according to their feasibility, such as in terms of time and cost.

The fifth consideration is based on the patient's acceptability—as nurses should involve patients when planning their interventions and take their values, beliefs, and cultures into account.

Lastly, interventions are selected based on the nurse's capability. For example, they may depend on the nurse's psychomotor or psychosocial abilities.

In order to compare nursing outcomes globally, the Nursing Interventions Classification, or NIC, provides a systematic, research-based, and standardized set of guidelines for interventions.