Nursing care protocol for patients with a ventricular assist device.

OBJECTIVE: to develop and validate a nursing care protocol for patients with a ventricular assist device (VAD). METHOD: descriptive study, with a quantitative approach, for an instrument's methodological validation. Three stages were conducted: development of the instrument; protocol content validation according to the Delphi technique, and agreement among experts and the scientific literature. RESULTS: based on the content validation, a care protocol for patients with a VAD was created and assessed by Spanish experts. Of the 15 items evaluated by means of the content validity index (CVI), 10 presented solid evidence of validation, with Kappa ranging between 0.87 and 1. CONCLUSION: the method enabled the validation of interventions that will contribute to qualified and standardized care for patients with a VAD.