Nursing Interventions Classification (7th Edition)

Book Preface

How to find an intervention

This edition of the Classification contains 565 interventions. There are several methods available for finding the desired intervention:
Choose alphabetically if one knows the name of the intervention and desires to see the entire listing of activities and background readings (see Part Three).
Use the NIC Taxonomy if one wishes to identify related interventions in particular topic areas (see Part Two).
Select the NIC Linkages with NANDA-I Diagnoses if one has a NANDA-I diagnosis and would like to have a list of suggested interventions, one can use NANDA-I-NIC linkages in Part Six of the sixth edition of NIC.
Review the NIC Core Interventions by Specialty if one is designing a course or information system for a particular specialty group (see Part Four).
An individual should not be overwhelmed by the size of the Classification, as it is intended to be comprehensive for all specialties and all disciplines. It does not take long to become familiar with the Classification and to locate the interventions most relevant to one’s own practice. The selection of a nursing intervention for a particular patient is part of the clinical decision making of the nurse.
Six factors should be considered when choosing an intervention: (1) desired patient outcomes, (2) characteristics of the nursing diagnosis, (3) research base for the intervention, (4) feasibility for doing the intervention, (5) acceptability to the patient, and (6) capability of the nurse. These are explained more fully in Part One.

Frequently asked questions

Understanding the reasons things were done in a certain way will assist in better use of the Classification. Here we have grouped the questions individuals may have under five related topics:(1) types of interventions, (2) choosing an intervention, (3) activities, (4) implementing or computerizing NIC, and (5) other.

Types of interventions

1. Does NIC cover treatments used by nurses practicing in specialty areas and advanced practice?Most definitely yes. Part Four lists 53 nursing specialty areas, and in each area, the core (or most common) NIC interventions that would be used by practicing nurses in the specialty are listed. Furthermore, many of the specialty areas such as Anesthesia Nursing, Midwifery Nursing, and Oncology Nursing require an advanced practice licensure, certification, or advanced experience in the clinical specialty area with a master’s degree or doctorate in nursing practice (DNP). For example, the following interventions may reflect the practice of a certified nurse working in obstetrics: Amnioinfusion, Birthing, Electronic Fetal Monitoring: Antepartum, High-Risk Pregnancy Care, Labor Induction, Labor Suppression, Reproductive Technology Management, and Ultrasonography: Obstetric and Gynecologic. A similar list can be identified for most specialties. There are also interventions that require an advanced practice license such as Prescribing: Diagnostic Testing, Medication Prescribing, and Anesthesia Administration.
2. Does NIC include the important monitoring functions of the nurse? Very definitely yes. NIC includes many monitoring interventions (e.g., Acid-Base Monitoring, Electronic Fetal Monitoring: Antepartum, Health Policy Monitoring, Intracranial Pressure [ICP] Monitoring, Invasive Hemodynamic Monitoring, Neurologic Monitoring, Surveillance, Surveillance: Late Pregnancy, Surveillance: Remote Electronic, and Vital Signs Monitoring). These interventions consist mostly of monitoring activities but also include some activities to reflect the clinical judgment process, or what nurses are thinking and anticipating when they monitor. These interventions define what to look for and what to do when an anticipated event occurs. In addition, all interventions in NIC include monitoring activities when these are done as part of the intervention. We use the words monitor and identify to mean assessment activities that are part of an intervention. We have tried to use these words rather than the word assess in this intervention classification because assessment is the term used in the nursing process to refer to those activities that take place before diagnosis and therefore before the intervention.
3. Does NIC include interventions that would be used by a primary care practitioner, especially interventions designed to promote health? Yes indeed. There is an entire class of Patient Education interventions focused on promoting health, which includes interventions such as Health Education, Teaching: Individual, and Teaching: Disease Process. Many other health-promotion interventions are included across classes. Examples include Anticipatory Guidance, Decision-Making Support, Developmental Enhancement: Adolescent, Developmental Enhancement: Child, Exercise Promotion, Health Coaching, Health Screening, Immunization/Vaccination Management, Learning Facilitation, Nutrition Management, Weight Management, Oral Health Promotion, Parent Education: Adolescent, Parent Education: Childrearing Family, Parent Education: Infant, Risk Identification, Smoking Cessation Assistance, Substance Use Prevention, and Self-Responsibility Facilitation. Medication Prescribing and Prescribing: Diagnostic Testing are interventions used by many advanced practice nurses working in primary care.
4. Does NIC include alternative therapies? We assume this question refers to treatments that are not part of mainstream health care in the United States but may be more common in other countries. Interventions in NIC that might be listed as alternative therapies include Acupressure, Aromatherapy, Autogenic Training, Biofeedback, Dance Therapy, Healing Touch, Hypnosis, Massage, Phytotherapy, Guided Imagery, Reiki, Relaxation Therapy, and Therapeutic Touch. Many of these interventions are located in the class Psychological Comfort Promotion. Other alternative therapies will be added to NIC as they become part of accepted nursing practice.
5. Does the Classification include administrative interventions? The Classification includes indirect care interventions done by first-line staff or advance practice nurses but does not include, for the most part, those behaviors that are administrative in nature. An indirect care intervention is a treatment performed by a direct care provider away from the patient but on behalf of a patient or group of patients, while an administrative intervention is an action performed by a nurse administrator (nurse manager or other nurse administrator) to enhance the performance of staff members to promote better patient outcomes. Some of the interventions in NIC, when used by an administrator to enhance staff performance, would then be administrative interventions. Most of these are located in the taxonomy in the Health System domain. For example, Delegation, Peer Review, Quality Monitoring, Staff Supervision, Staff Development, and Supply Chain Management. It should be noted that the borders between direct, indirect, and administrative interventions are not firm and some NIC interventions may be used in various contexts. For example, the nurse in the hospital may provide Caregiver Support as an indirect intervention administered to a relative of the patient being cared for, but the nurse in the home, treating the whole family, may provide this intervention as direct care. We have also included interventions for communities, such as Community Health Development, Program Development, and Social Marketing. However, these interventions are often delivered by the primary care nurse in the community setting or by the case manager.