Measuring Nursing-Sensitive Patients’ Outcomes in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction: Tool Development and Validation

Abstract

The outcomes movement is a young science, improving care by determining the outcomes of nursing interventions will give scientific validity to strategies that are used by nursing in a variety of venues. Cardiovascular nurses contribute significantly to health outcomes and frequently assume responsibility for the clinical and organizational processes to ensure positive outcomes for patients and families. The aims of this study were to identify nursing-sensitive patients’ outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction, to develop a tool to measure nursing-sensitive outcomes of caring patients with myocardial infarction, and to evaluate the content, face validity, reliability and nursing sensitivity of 46 nursing sensitive patient outcomes concerning biopsychosocioeducational aspects of care for patients with myocardial infarction from the Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC). A survey research design was utilized in this study to assess the content and face validity of the designed instrument and an inter-rater reliability was utilized to assure its reliability. Thirty patients with acute myocardial infarction were subjected for measuring their nursing sensitive outcomes during their stay in the CCUs or intermediate units. Fifty-nine experts were invited to participate in this study. Nursing Sensitive Outcomes Measuring Scale was developed and subjected for testing reliability, validity, and sensitivity. The study provided evidence of outcomes content validity, reliability, and nursing sensitivity of the studied outcomes. The study recommended testing of NOC outcomes in various clinical settings with appropriate training for nurses, and inclusion of NOC into nursing curricula to be utilized in clinical education as a continuum for nursing diagnoses classification.