| Nursing administration is concerned with the organization, production, distribution, and evaluation of nursing services for individuals and communities, and the practitioners and organizational units responsible for those services. The extent to which nurse administrators can perform efficiently is related to the existence of a common terminology or lexicon and taxonomy of their domain. The need for a common terminology has been recognized in nursing administration but systematic efforts to examine the terms in the domain have not been undertaken.;The purpose of this study was to identify and define key terms in the nursing administration lexicon and use those terms to delineate a taxonomic structure from the published literature in nursing administration. The research questions were: (1) What are the key domain terms in the lexicon of nursing administration as found in the literature? (2) What are the definitions of the terms? (3) What taxonomic structure best represents the relationships of terms in the nursing administration lexicon?;The population was the terminology in published nursing administration journal articles. The study sample was 284 randomly selected articles published from 1985 to 1990 meeting pre-specified criteria for inclusion and found in Nursing Management, Journal of Nursing Administration, Nursing Economics, or Nursing Administration Quarterly.;This descriptive study used lexicographic and taxonomic techniques. Articles were electronically scanned, converted to ASCII files, and formatted to assist in selecting key domain terms and developing context-based definitions. A panel of seven experts, using pre-specified criteria, identified eighty-five key terms from a term frequency list. Context-based definitions were developed for each key term using Key-Word-In-Context listings. Coefficients of dissimilarity were developed using paired comparisons of term association profiles and then analyzed with cluster analysis techniques to create a five cluster hierarchical taxonomy.;This study was a first step in describing the lexicon and taxonomy of terms in nursing administration. Practitioners will benefit from a more clearly delineated understanding of the terms in use. The findings can also provide a basis for the future development of theoretical knowledge and research. ftn*Support was provided by the National Center for Nursing Research, the National Institutes of Health, Grant F31 NR06398. |
