Nursing intervention refers to the intentional nursing assistance nurses provide, utilizing specialized knowledge and skills to maintain and enhance patients’ health. Through nursing intervention, nurses assist patients in leading individualized lives until the end. Various terms, such as nursing intervention, nursing technique, nursing activity, and nursing action, are used, each with different definitions. The International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) defines “nursing intervention” as “activities of nursing professionals occurring within the nursing field that result in positive outcomes for patients.”

Efforts are underway to classify nursing interventions, including the Nursing Intervention Classification (NIC) and the International Classification of Nursing Practice. Nursing intervention classification involves conceptualizing and categorizing care and educational activities that achieve desired results through the involvement of nursing staff with those under their care. These interventions are categorized into care groups based on their targets, such as physiological health-basic interventions (supporting bodily functions), physiological health-complex interventions (supporting homeostasis regulation), behavioral interventions (supporting psychosocial functions and promoting life cycle transformation), safety interventions (supporting protection from harm), families (supporting family groups), and health system interventions (supporting the effective use of health delivery systems).

While the term “nursing intervention” may be subject to questioning, it essentially involves intentional nursing assistance based on the specialized knowledge and skills of nurses, carefully considered to achieve desired outcomes.

• Bulechek, G. M., Dochterman, J. M., & Butcher, H. K. (Eds.). (2009). Nursing intervention classification (NIC) (Original 5th ed.; Nakagi, T., & Kuroda, Y., Trans.). Nankodo Co., Ltd.
• International Association of Nurses (Ed.). (2006). ICNP (International Classification of Nursing Practice) (1st ed., Japanese version; Japan Nursing Association “Working Group for the Japanese Version of the 1st Edition of the International Classification of Nursing Practice,” Trans.). Japanese Nursing Association Press.
• Snyder, M. (1994). Text nursing intervention: Nurse’s approach to patients based on independent diagnosis (Ozaki, F., & Hayakawa, K., Trans.). MEDICUS SHUPPAN, Publishers Co., Ltd.
• Snyder, M. (1996). Malaya Snyder’s nursing theory: Nursing diagnosis and nursing-unique interventions (Nojima, R., Trans.). Herusu Publishing Co., Inc.