Design and construct of an assessment tool for the handover of critical patient the in urgent care and emergency setting

• Published in: International emergency nursing 2024-08, Vol.75, p.101490, Article 101490
• Main Authors: Tortosa-Alted, Ruth, Berenguer-Poblet, Marta, Reverté-Villarroya, Silvia, Fernández-Sáez, José, Roche-Campo, Ferran, Alcoverro-Faneca, Montserrat, Ferré-Felipo, Rebeca, Lleixà-Benet, Immaculada, Martínez-Segura, Estrella
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Emergency medical services; Patient handover; Prehospital emergency care; Psychometrics; Surveys and questionnaires
• ISSN: 1755-599X; 1532-9267
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ienj.2024.101490

•What is already known on this subject:•Numerous efforts have been made to improve communication during the handover process, but implementation has been slow and impeded by a lack of consensus and wide variability in real-world practices.•Most of the currently available instruments to evaluate the handover process have deficiencies in their psychometric properties and/or in the methodological rigor used to develop them.•What this study adds:•This study provides an assessment tool for the handover of critically ill patients in the urgent care and emergency setting with a high content validity index, which was prepared by using the consensus methodology, e-Delphi technique and the application of a pilot test to defined participants working in this field.•It is the only tool available to date that considers all the dimensions and characteristics of a handover. To design and construct an assessment tool for the handover of critical patients in the urgent care and emergency setting. This metric and descriptive study comprised two phases in accordance with the Clinical practice guidelines for A Reporting Tool for Adapted Guidelines in Health Care: The RIGHT-Ad@pt Checklist. In the first phase, the identification and selection of items related to the handover of critical patients were performed by consensus of a group of experts. The second phase consisted of two stages. In the first stage, the items were selected by applying the e-Delphi technique across two assessment rounds and in the second stage, the items were subjected a pilot test in a real critical patient handover scenario. Professionals from different disciplines and work areas (hospital and prehospital) caring for critically ill patients in the urgency and emergency setting participated in each of the phases. A total of 58 critical patient care, and urgent and emergency care professionals participated in the design and construction of the assessment tool. The initial list consisted of 14 categories and 57 items, which were reduced to 28 items grouped into five categories after the intervention of the participants. The content validity index (CVI) of the instrument was 0.966. This study describes an assessment tool developed in Spanish-language designed to assess the handover of critical patients in the urgent care and emergency setting. This tool has a high CVI, and is the only currently available tool that consider all of the dimensions and characteristics of the handover process. The assessment too