Validation of the nursing activities score in chilean intensive care units [Validación del nursing activities score en unidades de cuidados intensivos chilenas].

Abstract

Objective: Analyse the degree to which psychometric properties are preserved in the Nursing Activities Score through assessments of instrument reliability and validity. Method: Assessments of instrument adaptation and validation that measures the workload of nursing in Intensive Care Units and that covers more than 80% of nursing activities, estimating the daily allocation of patients to the nursing staff according to the patients’ care needs. The instrument’s reliability was assessed in six intensive care units located in two hospitals in Santiago, Chile. Results: The mean nursing activities score was 70.86%. For exploratory factor analysis, items without variability were excluded (2, 3, 15, 16 and 18). The least squares factor extraction method was used, executed in the Factor software, and it resulted in one factor explaining 12.8% of total instrument variance. The proposed factor structure grouped items in one factor; however, items 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 19, 20, 22 and 23 did not present adequate communality. The calculated value for the Kuder-Richardson formula was 0.886. The Nursing Activities Score instrument was highly and positively correlated with the Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (r = 0.601), used as an external validation criterion. Conclusion: Due to theoretical and practical relevancy, as well as conceptual connections of the items selected during the content validation process, we recommend that these items are not eliminated from the Nursing Activities Score instrument. Additional validation studies should be conducted in other populations.