Excitement is building for the NNN conference (NANDA, NIC, and NOC) to be held at the Holiday Inn, Mart Plaza, Chicago, April 11 - 13, ZOU2. The Planning Committee, com- posed of representatives from NANDA and the Center for Nursing Classikation (Iowa), has worked to plan a mnfemce that will bring to- gether language developers, re- searchers, educators, clinicians, ad- ministrators, and vendors to advance nulsing language internationally.

We have enjoyed an exception- ally high response to the call for ab- stracts. Susan Chase and an external review team have selected out- standing paper and poster presen- tations that cover a wide array of topics. We have made a concerted effort to include papers on nursing diagnoses, interventions, and out- comes. In addition, there will be multiple presentations that focus on a variety of clinical situations.

In June 2001, Joanne McCloskey Dochterman and Dorothy Jones, Co-Chairs of the conference, re- ceived a National Library of Medicine grant to develop an over- arching classification structure for nursing diagnoses, interventions,

and outcomes (NANDA, NIC, and NOC). To this end, an invitational confewnce was held in August 2001 in Starved Rock, IL. Twenty-five n m experts in language develop ment attended. As a result of this meeting, a 'White Paper" will be presented to conference partici- pants, which will d e c t the work of this p u p . A special forum will be held during the conference for at- tendees to react to this paper and offer suggestions and critiques.

Conference participants will also have an opportunity to hear panels given by nursing educators, infor- matics developers, vendors, and specialty groups on the use of stan- dardized language from each group's perspective. In addition, a panel of nurses who use nursing language internationally will dis- cuss challenges and opporhnities of NANDA, NIC, and NOC from a

Regularly scheduled NANDA committee meetings (e.g., Diagnosis Review and Taxonomy Commit- tees) will be held during the confer- ence and voting for vacancies on the NANDA Board of Directors will occur at an assigned time during

variety of perspectives.

the meeting. In addition, the NANDA business meeting will be held on Saturday afternoon (April 13) following a s p e d Awards Lun- cheon. A preconference will be held for those new to nursing diagnosis, interventions, and outcomes on Wednesday afternoon, April 10.

Expanded abstracts of the pre- sentations and posters from the conference will be compiled into a supplemental issue of this jour- nal-Nursing Dingnasis: "he Interna- tional journal of Nursing Language and Classification-and will be avail- able 6 months after the meeting.

We hope this conference will offer ground-breaking information and help set the stage for new growth and development of nurs- ing language worldwide. To find out more information about the conference, including registration, please visit the NANDA Web site www.nanda.org email: NANDA@ rmpinc.com; or call 800.647.8002. We look forward to seeing you at this important meeting.

Dorothy Jones joanne McCloskq Dochterman

cOn@mce co-chairs

Visit Nursing Diagnosis: The International Journal of Nursing Language

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Nudng Diqpoda Volume U, No. 4, OctohDecembeq 2001 143