Nurses use a nursing process, that is a scientific approach method, in order to understand the clients condition and to solve their problems. Professional nurses have accepted the nursing process as a standard framework for nursing activities. and the first step of the nw~sing process is nursing assessment.
The purpose of this study was to develop a nurs-ing assessment tool for emergency patients. Assessment is a first step in the nursing process, and scientific assessment helps to better understand the patients. Thus the development of an assessment tool for emergency patients will improve of nursing quality and advance to efficacy of emergency room(ER1 management.
The study im~olved the development of a conceptual frame~~ork. preliminary tool. content validity verification process. and reliability verification process. The conceptual frameworl: was developed through a review of the literature. and preliminary tool ~~~as developed from the conceptual framework that based on Emergency care flow sheet developed James A. Haley.
The preliminary tool was evaluated for validity and ,reliability by seven experts. one ER nurse manager, two ER head nurses. two emergency medicine doctors. and two ER charge nurses and by ten nurses with one to five year careers in ER nursing
The results of this study was as follows
1. The conceptual framework which was develoiled was composed of three parts. They were triage criteria, first assessment and secondary assessment.
2. The preliminary tool which was developed had 31 items based on the conceptual framework.
3. To test expert validity a 4-point scale was used, items which had gained 3-4 points fiom six persons of the seven experts were selected. All 31 items from. the preliminary tool were selected.
4. The reliability test was done by ten nurses educated in the use of the assessment tool. Two pairs of nurses simultaneously- assessed t;he same patients. A total agreement percentile was calculated and result was 87.3io agreement.
5. After the validity and reliability testing. the final emergency patient nursing assessment tool was finalised with 31 items. and acheck-list for the 1esponses.
This study concludes that the tool which was developed is both valid and reliable will advance quality care for emergency patients. This emergency nursing assessment tool was also found to be an adequate tool for assessment of emergency patients.
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