Abstract

Ensuring quality in nursing care is divided into several areas. The categorization of patients or categorization of patients’ nursing care is only one of the areas of quality. The history of the categorization of patients goes back to the 1960s. Despite its relatively short existence, it has been significantly developed and improved since that time. There are over 1000 categorization systems. They are divided into two large groups: prototype and factor systems. The method of categorization was first implemented in Slovenia in 1995 with the research project entitled “The project for implementing the programme for ensuring quality of the system of classification of patients in nursing care”. In 2004 the method was accepted by the Ministry of Health as an integral part of hospital practice. At the end of 2010, several suggestions for changing the existing system of categorization were made in Slovenia. The suggestions were made by the Council for unification of Slovenian categorization of the requirements of hospital nursing care. The first suggestion with significant modification involves the area of treatment of children. The challenges with regard to the categorization of requirements of hospital nursing care are very complex. The challenges that exist are not only related to the ill child and the parents’ or assistants’ stay, but they also extend to the area of health and educational counselling of parents and the child.

Key words: Categorization of requirements of hospital nursing care, San Joaquin system, children, assistants, nursing care.