On September 4, 2025, over 50 nurses from across the US representing jails, prisons, detention centers, community corrections and other settings where incarcerated persons are provided nursing services will convene to discuss the National Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) for the specialty which has not been updated for Correctional Nursing for 20 years. Led by the American Correctional Nurses Association and the Center for Correctional Nursing in partnership in partnership with the University of Iowa College of Nursing, the work completed is expected to expand and clarify the contemporary role of Correctional Nursing which has grown more complex over time.

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“It is exciting to have this opportunity to gain visibility for the work that nurses do with these very sick patients who are involved with the justice system”, stated Mrs. Norman, President, ACNA. The NIC has been used in clinical reasoning models, which enhance nursing decision-making and is one of the standardized languages recognized by the American Nurses' Association (ANA). NIC is included in the Unified Medial Language System (UMLS) in the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and in the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). NIC is also included in The Joint Commission as one nursing classification system that can be used to meet the standard on uniform data. NIC has also been linked with the Healthy People 2030 Social Determinants of Health.

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Hundreds of health care agencies have adopted NIC for use in standards, care plans, competency evaluation, and nursing information systems; nursing education programs are using NIC to structure curriculum and identify competencies of graduating nurses; authors of major texts are using NIC to discuss nursing treatments; and researchers are using NIC to study the effectiveness of nursing care, as NIC provides standardized ways to document progress on achieving patients’ goals. The evidence demonstrates that research conducted in health care organizations that use NIC produces meaningful data that are a valid representation of nursing care and amenable to efficient processing and analysis, demonstrate relationships between nursing care plan components and patient outcomes, and assist the care provider in targeting areas of need, such as social determinants of health.

The NIC has been featured in research publications linking nursing diagnoses (NANDA-I) and nursing outcomes (Nursing Outcomes Classification [NOC]). These three languages, known as NNN (NANDA-I, NIC, NOC) can be linked in determining patient plans of care. As such, they have been used most often in research and secondary data analysis worldwide, are suitable for use in secondary analysis of EHR data and have sound taxonomic nursing structures (including definitions on all classification levels). Finally, the NNN are observable or measurable, making them more amenable to mapping.

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Of interest, NIC has been demonstrated in several other countries and has been translated for use in these countries as well. The Correctional Nursing Specialty NIC will be disseminated separately for further discussion and use following finalization of the classification process and validation by participants and an opportunity for public input.

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