title: Instrument development: getting started.
abstract: The four steps involved in instrument development are: concept identification; item construction; validity testing and reliability testing. The clinician who has begun to identify characteristics associated with a patient group has in reality begun the process of instrument development. The challenge for clinicians and researchers is to transform those observable phenomena into a instrument that measures the attribute of the group. Only with reliable and valid measures can true relationships and differences be determined and effective intervention programs be formulated.
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor 48109, USA.
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D015982:Bias; D015400:Clinical Nursing Research / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results