BACKGROUND: An adequate exchange of nursing information between health care facilities should be taken as a fundamental strategy to promote continuity of nursing care. The actual system used to exchange nursing information between nursing staff from health care services in Matosinhos, Portugal, appears to be unsatisfactory. OBJECTIVE: This paper reports the development and use o a model of organization and nursing information exchange. METHODS: The study used the Delphi technique whose focus was to reach a consensus from a panel of expert nurses from different areas of practice. RESULTS: The consensus of the panel allowed reaching hierarchical aspects of the problem in exchanging nursing information. It was possible to define the presupposed information that should guide the Nursing Exchange Information System development, and to identify the information that effectively should be exchanged between health care facilities at different levels of access. CONCLUSION: The exchange of information among different health care facilities should be guided by a model that guarantees the reciprocal and confidential nursing information, in real time, using appropriate information and communication technologies.
Nursing; Information systems; Nursing records
