Our Story

Defining the Knowledge of Nursing

Words are powerful. They allow us to communicate ideas and experience to others so they may share our understanding.

About NANDA International

Nursing diagnoses communicate the professional judgments that nurses make every day to our patients, colleagues, members of other disciplines and the public. Nursing diagnoses define what we know – they are our words.

Our Purpose

Implementation of nursing diagnosis enhances every aspect of nursing practice, from garnering professional respect to assuring consistent documentation representing nurses’ professional clinical judgment, and accurate documentation to enable reimbursement. NANDA International exists to develop, refine and promote terminology that accurately reflects nurses’ clinical judgments.

Our Vision

NANDA International will be a global force for the development and use of nursing’s standardized terminology to ensure patient safety through evidence-based care, thereby improving the health care of all people.

Our Mission

To facilitate the development, refinement, dissemination and use of standardized nursing diagnostic terminology.

  • We provide the world’s leading evidence-based nursing diagnoses for use in practice and to determine interventions and outcomes.
  • We contribute to patient safety through the integration of evidence-based terminology into clinical practice and clinical decision-making
  • We fund research through the NANDA-I Foundation
  • We are a supportive and energetic global network of nurses, who are committed to improving the quality of nursing care and improvement of patient safety through evidence-based practice.

Prior to the year 2002, “NANDA” was an acronym for the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association. However, that is no longer the name of the organization.

In 2002, we officially became NANDA International (and NANDA International, Inc., in 2011), in consideration of the significant growth of our membership outside North America. We continue to use “NANDA” as part of our name, due to its familiarity. However, “NANDA” is no longer an acronym for “North American.” Instead, NANDA is our brand name, e.g. like NIKE is a brand name.

The correct name of our organization is NANDA International, Inc. (no hyphen) and the abbreviation is NANDA-I (with a hyphen). Please do not use “North American Nursing Diagnosis Association” to describe our organization (unless you are referring to the organization prior to 2002). Thank you!