Evaluation of a ‘Nursing Checklist’ for Receiving Patients in ICUs: A Pilot Study

Abstract

ICU is a highly specialized and sophisticated area that operates with defined policies and protocols. In the current study, a ‘Nursing checklist’ to receive patients in ICUs was developed. A pilot study was undertaken to evaluate its effectiveness. The checklist was prepared by following all the steps of Delphi technique. It was validated by 11 experts in four Delphi rounds. The checklist contained 105 items categorized under 12 main steps. Inter-rater agreement between raters for checklist was checked with Cohen’s Kappa. Its value was 0.98–1.00. The reliability of the checklist was established with Cronbach’s alpha. Its value was 0.97. The study was conducted in ICUs in a tertiary care hospital in Chandigarh, India. Thirty nurses were purposively selected. They were taught how to use the checklist and were told to evaluate the checklist. A five point rating scale questionnaire was provided to evaluate the check list. Parameters of evaluation were related to its beneficence, help in planning work, help in preventing errors, systematizing nursing care, reduce anxiety and tension, reduce frequent rounds of relatives to chemist shop, facilitate emergency management, no step is missed, conserve energy and regarding implementation of ‘Nursing checklist’ in ward. Average score for effectiveness of checklist was 46.83 out of 50. The average score percentage for effectiveness of the developed tool of Nursing Checklist was 93.6%. Results of the evaluation of nursing checklist indicate that it can be applied in daily practice and in the clinical research context.

Keywords: evaluation, intensive care unit, nursing checklist