Nursing competence in continuous renal replacement therapy: development and validation of a measurement tool.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Acute Renal Failure is an essential condition frequently encountered in intensive care units and requires targeted treatment. The critical care nursing team must be adequately trained to manage patients undergoing Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy. OBJECTIVES: To develop and validate the Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy - Measurement Competency Tool, aimed at measuring nursing competence in managing patients undergoing renal replacement techniques. METHODS: A cross-sectional tool validation study with a test-retest.A total of 30 critical care nurses participated in this study. The study examined content and face validity. Test-retest reliability with Pearson's r correlation and internal consistency reliability was assessed using Cronbach's α. Current guidelines for Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy techniques were used to develop an instrument to measure nursing competence through an online survey. A pool of 10 experts evaluated this tool. RESULTS: The Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy - Measurement Competency Tool achieved good content and face validity (S-CVI= 0.97; I-CVI=87%-100%), and good internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's α= 0.799). Pilot testing and test-retesting was conducted with 30 critical care nurses. The intraclass correlation for the test-retest analysis indicates excellent test-retest reliability, confirming the stability of the tool. ConclUSION: The tool assesses nursing competence concerning Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy techniques in the intensive care unit, which proved to be valid and reliable. This new tool will make it possible to measure the competence of nurses with respect to Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy techniques.