The development of common concepts and terms for nursing practice is crucial for the effective use of nursing-information systems. In Sweden, the VIPS model has been developed to support the systematic and common documentation of nursing care in patient records. The model has been widely used in different areas of nursing practice. This literature review was conducted as a part of a larger project to study the validity and reliability of the VIPS model, as well as its dissemination into the Swedish health-care system. The findings showed in general good reliability and content validity for the keywords in the VIPS model. The implications for the further development of the model are discussed.