Design and content validation of a checklist about infection-prevention performance of intensive care nurses in simulation-based scenarios

Abstract

Objective: To design, develop and validate a new tool, called NEUMOBACT, to evalu-ate critical care nurses' knowledge and skills in ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP)and catheter-related bacteraemia (CRB) prevention through simulation scenarios in-volving central venous catheter (CVC), endotracheal suctioning (ETS) and mechani-cally ventilated patient care (PC) stations.Background: Simulation-based training is an excellent way for nurses to learn preven-tion measures in VAP and CRB.Design: Descriptive metric study to develop NEUMOBACT and analyse its contentand face validity that followed the COSMIN Study Design checklist for patient-reported outcome measurement instruments.Methods: The first version was developed with the content of training modules in useat the time (NEUMOBACT-1). Delphi rounds were used to assess item relevance withexperts in VAP and CRB prevention measures, resulting in NEUMOBACT-2. Expertsin simulation methods then assessed feasibility, resulting in NEUMOBACT-3. Finally,a pilot test was conducted among 30 intensive care unit (ICU) nurses to assess theapplicability of the evaluation tool in clinical practice.Results: Seven national experts in VAP and CRB prevention and seven national simula-tion experts participated in the analysis to assess the relevance and feasibility of eachitem, respectively. After two Delphi rounds with infection experts, four Delphi roundswith simulation experts, and pilot testing with 30 ICU nurses, the NEUMOBACT-FINAL tool consisted of 17, 26 and 21 items, respectively, for CVC, ETS and PC.Conclusion: NEUMOBACT-FINAL is useful and valid for assessing ICU nurses' knowl-edge and skills in VAP and CRB prevention, acquired through simulation.