Patient dependency in the Oncology Emergency Room. Reliability and validity of the Jones Dependency Tool.

BACKGROUND: Patients' dependency has significant nursing implications. Nurse skill mix and staffing levels may be addressed more successfully when dependency can be measured. In the oncology emergency room, a valid and reliable tool that measures patients' dependency on nursing care is necessary. AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Jones Dependency Tool in Adult Oncology Emergency Setting at a Cancer Center in Jordan. METHODS: A prospective cross-sectional design was used to test the Reliability and Validity of the Jones Dependency Tool among patients with cancer visiting the ED. A sample of 79 patients were assessed using the JDT and Conner's tool. RESULTS: Jones Dependency Tool showed a high level of validity and reliability. In terms of reliability, which was tested by test-re-test, Intra-class correlation (ICC) = 0.902 which indicates good to excellent. The tool demonstrates a high validity evidenced by its correlation with a criterion (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated that the JDT tool is a valid and reliable tool that can be used to quantify a patient's dependency level and the level of nursing care they need, assisting in the selection of the ideal staffing level in terms of quantity and skill mix.

Psychometric evaluation of the Arabic version of the Irish Assertiveness Scale among Saudi undergraduate nursing students and interns.

BACKGROUND: Irish Assertiveness Scale is commonly used to examine the individual' level of assertiveness. There is no adequately validated Arabic instrument that examines the level of assertiveness among Arabic-speaking undergraduate nursing students. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to translate, then evaluate the psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the Irish Assertiveness Scale among Saudi undergraduate nursing students and interns. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTINGS: Three nursing colleges from three provinces in Saudi Arabia: Riyadh, Eastern and Makkah provinces. PARTICIPANTS: 283 questionnaires were completed by 3rd and 4th year undergraduate nursing students, and nursing interns. METHODS: A standard procedure including forward-backward translation, cultural adaptation and pilot testing was adopted to translate the Irish Assertiveness Scale into Arabic language. Content validity was measured using content validity index. Scale reliability was measured using cronbach's alpha coefficient and mean inter-item correlation. The sample was randomly split, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was then conducted on each sample to examine the construct validity of the proposed scale. A subsequent convergent validity and discriminant validity were also tested. RESULTS: The item-level content validity index ranged from 0.9 to 1.0, and the overall content validity index was 0.93. The exploratory factor analysis resulted in 23-items, four-factor solution explaining 49.4% of the total variance. The mean inter-item correlation for each factor ranged between 0.22 and 0.4. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the overall scale was 0.80. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that the proposed four-factor solution had the best model fit. Whilst discriminant validity was supported in the new model, convergent validity was partially met. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributed toward establishing the Arabic version of the Irish Assertiveness Scale. Considering the limitations of the convergent validity demonstrated in the new instrument, a modified version of the Irish Assertiveness Scale might be needed to ascertain the most feasible model which best captures the level of assertiveness in Arabic cultural context.

Validation of the Arabic Version of the Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Assessment Tool.

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy results in multidimensional neurological and muscular symptoms, which interfere with the patients' daily life. AIM: Examine the psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy assessment tool (CIPNAT) among adult cancer patients. METHOD: A descriptive study design was used. A convenience sample of 210 patients was assigned to two groups: 135 who received chemotherapies of known neurotoxic potential and 75 who served as a comparison group. Translation and back-translation considering cross-cultural issues to produce the Arabic version of CIPNAT was used. Test-retest and internal consistency reliability were used to test the reliability of the tool, whereas for the validity, content and construct validity were assessed. RESULTS: Test-retest scores for the overall scale (r = 0.98, p = < .001), for the symptom experience subscale (r = 0.97, p = <.001), and for the interference subscale (r = 0.96, p = < .001) all showed evidence of reliability. Cronbach α coefficients were 0.97, 0.96, and 0.95 for the total scores, symptoms experience, and interference scales, respectively. Items to total correlation ranged from moderate to strong (0.55-0.81). The Content Validity Index was 0.83. The data support the evidence of discriminant validity, as significant differences were found between the groups with regard to symptom experience (t = 8.51, p = < .001), interference (t = 5.60, p = <.001), and total score (t = 7.88, p = < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The Arabic version of CIPNAT showed adequate reliability and validity to screen for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy symptoms and their interference in Arab countries. Further studies are needed to evaluate concurrent validity.