Development and content validation of the checklist for assessing placement of a small-bore chest tube (CAPS) for small-bore chest tube placement.

Background: Small-bore chest tube (SBCT) placement via modified Seldinger technique is a commonly performed invasive procedure for treatment of pleural effusion and pneumothorax. When performed suboptimally, it may lead to serious complications. Validated checklists are central to teaching and assessing procedural skills and may result in improved health care quality. In this paper, we describe the development and content validation of a SBCT placement checklist. Methods: A literature review across multiple medical databases and seminal textbooks was performed to identify all publications describing procedural steps involved in SBCT placement. No studies were identified that involved systematic development of a checklist for this purpose. After the first iteration of a comprehensive checklist (CAPS) based on literature review was developed, the modified Delphi technique involving a panel of nine multidisciplinary experts was used to modify it and establish its content validity. Results: After four Delphi rounds, the mean expert-rated Likert score across all checklist items was 6.85 ± 0.68 (out of 7). The final, 31-item checklist had a high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.846) with 95% of the responses (by nine experts across 31 checklist items) being a numerical score of 6 or 7. Conclusions: This study reports the development and content validity of a comprehensive checklist for teaching and assessing SBCT placement. For purposes of demonstrating construct validity, this checklist should next be studied in the simulation and clinical setting.