Table 1.

Comparison of Nursing Minimal Data Sets (NDMSs): Purpose and Population

	USA	Belgium	Australia	Canada	Europe
Name of data set	Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS)	Minimale Verpleegkundige Gegevens/Résumé Infirmier Minimum (MVG/RIM)	Community Nursing Minimum Data Set Australia (CNMDSA)	Health Information: Nursing components (HI:NC)	TELENURSE & International Classification of Nursing Practice (ICNP)
Purpose	Describe and compare nursing care	Bridge gap between variability of daily nursing practice and policymaking	Compare performance of institutions	Deliver information about nursing care	Determine feasibility of nursing data collection and comparison in Europe
	Demonstrate and analyze trends in nursing care	Describe health status	Allocate resources	Demonstrate unique contribution of nurses to the health of Canadians	Make visible what nurses do
	Support nursing research	Allow for clinical nursing research	Monitor and compare health status of the population		Collect nursing data that have been documented with use of the ICNP
	Base policy on factual data	Determine costs and effectiveness of nursing care	Deliver information
		Determine intensity of nursing care
		Determine hospital budgets and staffing
Scope	National	National	National	National	Multinational
Population	All settings	General hospitals	Community care	All settings	All settings