Paper
Monday, November 5, 2007
401
Establishing the Practicality of an Instrument
Claudia J. Gamel, RN, PhD, Division of Nursing Science, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands and J.Jaap Van der Bijl, RN, PhD, University Medical Center Utrecht, University of Utrecht, na, na, Netherlands.
| Learning Objective #1: The learner will be able to identify indicators to use when assessing practicality of an instrument or questionnaire. |
| Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able to describe the process of formulating complete and clear questions concerning the selected indicators of practicality |
Nurses regularly use research instruments and clinical assessment tools in their daily practice when working according to the principles and directives of evidence based practice and best practices. It is challenging to determine which instrument to use. When selecting an instrument to measure outcomes or to screen for symptoms, the psychometric properties of validity and reliability are considered. Assessment of the practicality of an instrument is also important because a valid instrument may not be practical for use in all clinical settings. Evidence of practicality is often not available in published literature and when available, the findings may not be specific for the nurse’s own setting and patient group. Consequently nurses need methods and criteria in order to assess the practicality of an instrument before it is implemented in their practice.
The purpose of this presentation is to examine this concept and to review criteria and indicators for use in measuring this concept. Burns and Grove (2003) identify nine indicators of practicality and provide illustrative examples of investigations of practicality. The described method and indicators have been used within the UMC Utrecht with screening instruments (for example to screen for post stroke depression) as well as instruments to measure physiological phenomena (for example two types of instruments to assess pain in the recovery room). In this presentation the concept of practicality and the methods to establish the practicality of an instrument will be discussed.