Validation of a care protocol for the septic patient in the Intensive Care Unit.

OBJECTIVE: to elaborate and validate a protocol for the care of the nurse to the septic patient in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). METHOD: instrument validation study. Two steps were followed: instrument development and content validation according to the Delphi technique. RESULTS: the validation of contents related to the nurse's assistance to the septic patient in intensive care was initially composed of eighteen items analyzed by the evaluators/judges. From this, through the Content Validity Index (CVI), thirteen items with strong evidence of validation were identified, CVI = 0.79. Then the instrument was refined, being then composed of fifteen items, which in the second phase Delphi had a percentage of agreement above 84% for the variables pertinent to the protocol. CONCLUSION: the method was effective to validate the contents of a protocol for the nurse's assistance to the septic patient in the ICU.