In order to empirically identify data elements for content of a Clinical Nursing Information System serving cardiovascular nurses, the question "What supplemental information (or data, or other factors that must be taken into account in the design of an information system, the element most intimately dependent upon the domain served is the design of the data base, specifically, the identification of the data elements themselves and how the data in the system interact. Further, design of the CNIS must not only take into account data needed to document practice and record nursing diagnoses, interventions, and outcomes, the design must include information required by the nurses in order to give care.The identification of the data elements for the nursing data base can be approached from several. A large proportion of elements for the data set can be derived directly from the consideration of the conceptual or diagnostic system upon which nursing practice is based.tBecause of the collaborative nature of this research, the contribution of the two authors must be considered