It is imperative for nurses to develop standardized means to communicate the treatments performed on patients as well as the outcomes of these treatments. By standardizing the language used to describe nursing care, nurses can begin to use clinical information systems to identify the benefits of nursing interventions within various patients in various populations. Traditional software designers now realize the value of qualitative research in the development and evaluation of information systems. This paper presents the development of a prototype nursing information system using contextual software design methodology. This prototype system will link the Nursing Intervention Classification with the Nursing Outcomes Classification using pain management as the exemplar.