Confirming the reliability of the sedation-agitation scale administered by ICU nurses without experience in its use.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the validity and reliability of the Sedation-Agitation scale (SAS) when administered by intensive care unit (ICU) nurses with no experience in its use.


METHODS
Prospective, psychometric evaluation.


METHODS
Adult medical-cardiac ICU.


METHODS
Sixty patients.


METHODS
Sedation and agitation were observed simultaneously but independently by nurses and two investigators, and patients were rated with the SAS. The assessment of an experienced clinical nurse specialist was recorded on visual analog scales (VAS) for sedation (VAS-S) and agitation (VAS-A).


RESULTS
The SAS scores of ICU staff nurses were compared with VAS scored by the clinical nurse specialist using Pearson correlation coefficient. The SAS correlated well with VAS-S (Spearman's p = -0.77, p<0.001). Neither SAS nor VAS-A was correlated (Spearman's p = 0.05, p>0.5), but there were few observations of agitated patients. The SAS interrater agreement was excellent between the two trained investigators (weighted K = 0.93, p<0.001) and between investigators and staff nurses (weighted K = 0.85 and 0.87, p<0.001 for both).


CONCLUSIONS
The SAS is reliable when administered by staff nurses with no experience with it. Due to the paucity of observations of agitated patients, we were unable to determine its validity for assessing agitation.
Brandl
K M
KM
University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy, Albuquerque, USA.
Langley
K A
KA
Riker
R R
RR
Dork
L A
LA
Quails
C R
CR
Levy
H
H
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009732:Nursing Care; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics; D011595:Psychomotor Agitation / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives