Study Of International Classification Of Functioning, Disability And Health(ICF) Core Sets Relevant To Nursing For Inpatients

Background:International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) whichwas released by World Health Organization (WHO) provides an unified and standardlanguage and framework for the description of health and health-related states. Itbelongs to the “family” of international classifications developed by the WHO. ICFconsists of five components: body functions, body structures, activities andparticipation, environmental factors and personal factors. Each component containschapters and categories except the personal factors. ICF contains a total of1424categories.Functioning summaries body functions and structures, activities andparticipation. The human (and individual) experience of functioning is not consideredas the consequence of a disease, but the result of the interaction between a healthcondition and both personal attributes and environmental influences (contextualfactors). Contextual factors can act as facilitators or barriers for functioning. ICFprovides an effective and systemic tool for comprehensive analysis of various factorson the influence of the functioning. Foreign studies show that ICF has potential valueto all health professional. Since the1424categories is not practicable in clinicalpractice, ICF Core Sets have been developed. ICF Core Sets are generally-agreed-onlists of ICF categories, relevant for specific diseases or for health-care contexts,which can be used in clinic practice.Human responses to health problems involve the aspects of physiology,psychology, society, culture and so on. It’s comprehensively described by the nursing intervention classification which improves nursing to a level of independentdiscipline.But this classification don’t differ the interventions which are needed bythe individuals who have the same diagnosis bur different function levels.So it willlead to excessive care in the clinical practice and hinder patients expressing theiroriginal function. Secondly, the terms only apply to the nursing field, which hinderthe medical personnel’s communication. At last, it is not conducive to reflect thenursing workload and human resource allocation because of the interventions to thedifferent diagnosis has partly repeated. Mueller has identified ICF categories relevantfor nursing in the situation of acute and early post-acute rehabilitation which is afeasible way to analyze nursing. The study aims to identify the ICF core sets relevantto nursing for inpatients by Delphi method and clinical examination.Objectives:To identify the ICF core sets relevant to nursing for inpatients (hereinafterreferred to as “nursing core sets”).Materials and Methods:1. We selected nursing-related ICF categories (hereinafter referred to as“nursing categories”) of the initial ICF to form a questionnaire. Delphi method wasadopted and36experts from a general hospital of Jiangsu province were consulted bya questionnaire so as to identify the first period of nursing categories.2. Clinic check method was adopted and300inpatients from a general hospitalof Jiangsu province were checked by ICF checklist so as to identify the second periodof nursing categories.3. Two-period nursing categories were integrated and screened so as to identifynursing core sets initially based on the principle of comprehensive and time-savingclinical availability.4.76nurses from a general hospital of Jiangsu province were tested by aquestionnaire which was formed by nursing core sets categories initially so as toidentify nursing core sets. Results:1. A total of211nursing categories were initially chosen by four team membersto form a questionnaire,79categories were selected after expert consultation, andthen74of them were finally obtained.2.62categories were selected in the second phase by clinical examination andfurther screening.3. Integrate the two phases nursing categories according to the principles ofcomprehensive, time-saving and clinical practical applicability.92categories wereselected finally.4.90categories were selected finally by the questionnaire to the nurse.Conclusions:The distributions of the finally chosen nursing categories in ICF have turned outto be quite reasonable, concerning systematic, accessibility and convenientcommunicability. The finally established nursing categories have good prospects inclinical application.