Use of the clinical care classification in South Korean nursing practice: Challenges and opportunities

•The CCC has played a role in implementing standard nursing terminology of the ICNP® over the last two decades in South Korea.•Two-thirds of the responding hospitals in the national health information exchange network in South Korea recognized the awareness of CCC.•The CCC awareness showed significant relationships with the increase of overall scores for patient experiences.•Clinical use of CCC in practice revealed both prospective opportunities and challenges to overcome to realize the benefits of standardized terminologies.