Development and Validation Process of the Intensive Care Unit Omitted Nursing Care (ICU-ONC) Instrument Among French Canadian Nurses

Abstract

Background and Purpose:The purpose of this article is to document the development and validation process of an instrument adapted for French-speaking nurses and to measure the occurrence of omitted nursing care (ONC) in the ICU.Methods:An electronic Delphi panel, involving ICU nursing experts from the province of Quebec (Canada), was used to develop the intensive care unit omitted nursing care (ICU-ONC) instrument. For the validation process, an electronic cross-sectional survey was conducted.Results:A total of 564 nurses participated in the validation study. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) performed on 478 complete observations supports the presence of a single-factor structure for the 22-item ICU-ONC instrument. Cronbach’s α for the scale was 0.93, 95% CI (.92–.94), item–partial total correlations ranged from 0.49–0.68, and the mean/median interitem correlations were 0.38 and 0.37, respectively. Moderate negative correlations were found between the ICU-ONC instrument overall score and two related constructs: nurses’ perception of the quality as well as the safety of care.Conclusions:Our current understanding of ONC in the ICU is based on the results drawn from the administration of generic instruments to ICU nurses. The novel 22-item ICU-ONC instrument can help better estimate the occurrence of the phenomena in the ICU.