Taxonomy of etiology-specific independent nursing interventions: instrument development

The problem of the study was to develop a taxonomy of etiology-specific independent nursing interventions related to direct patient care which was exhaustive and mutually exclusive. An exploratory, descriptive, methodological research design was utilized. Research objectives rather than hypotheses were used. Research instruments summarized data collected from nursing literature to (a) define independent and interdependent nursing interventions, (b) infer the nurse's role and source of client difficulty from nursing models, and (c) classify nursing interventions in nursing process literature as independent or interdependent. The developed taxonomy is a four-dimensional, six-category, two-column table. The four dimensions are environmental, psychologic, social, and physiologic. Independent nursing interventions and corresponding etiologies in each category are described and related to the nurse's role and source of client difficulty. Interventions, including managing the client's environment, teaching, and "hands-on" interventions, were among the most clearly described in the taxonomy and were most frequently cited.