Resumo
Background: The lack of standardization in the nursing special language has been identified as one of the main problems to overcome so that the profession can be recognized as a science. The emphasis on addressing these concerns led to the development of nursing terminologies that often do not reflect the local nursing practices, and this fact motivated the identification of professional nursing terms in a teaching hospital. Objective: To build, based on the ICNP® Seven Axes Model, a bank of terms of the nursing special language for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a teaching hospital, by using the terms found in the nursing records of this unit. Methodology: Descriptive research developed with the goal of contributing to the systematization of nursing care at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a teaching hospital. The steps followed in this research were: identification and evaluation of specialized documents; cross mapping of the identified terms with the ICNP® Version 1.0 terms; establishment of databases domain trees; development of definitions for terms not included in ICNP®, validation of the terms and definitions included in the database. Results: The results show that the 596 terms and definitions validated will enable the building of a bank of terms of the nursing special language for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, containing 226 terms that are included and 374 terms that are not included in ICNP® Version 1.0. Conclusion: It is expected that this database will become a source for the development of ICNP® Catalogues, including sets of diagnostic statements, nursing results and interventions, which can be used to implement the systematization of nursing care in the unit in question.