D-Catch instrument: development and psychometric testing of a measurement instrument for nursing documentation in hospitals.
OBJECTIVE
This paper is a report of the development and testing of the psychometric properties of an instrument to measure the accuracy of nursing documentation in general hospitals.


BACKGROUND
Little information is available about the accuracy of nursing documentation. None of the existing instruments that quantify accuracy of nursing diagnoses, interventions, and progress and outcome evaluations are suitable to measure documentation in general hospital environments, nor were they intended for this purpose.


METHODS
The D-Catch instrument, based on the Cat-ch-Ing instrument and the Scale for Degrees of Accuracy in Nursing Diagnoses, was developed in 2007-2008. Content validity of the D-Catch instrument was assessed by two Delphi panels, in which pairs of independent reviewers assessed 245 patient records in seven hospitals in the Netherlands. Construct validity was assessed by explorative factor analysis with principal components and varimax rotation. Internal consistency was measured by Cronbach's alpha. The inter-rater reliability of the D-Catch instrument was tested by calculating Cohen's weighted kappa (K(w)) for each pair of reviewers. Results. Quantity and quality variables were used to assess the accuracy of nursing documentation. Three constructs were identified in the factor analysis. 'Accuracy of the nursing diagnosis' was the only variable with substantial loading on component two (0.907) and a modest loading on component one (0.230). Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was 0.722. The inter-rater reliability (K(w)) varied between 0.742 and 0.896.


CONCLUSIONS
The D-Catch instrument is a valid and reliable measurement instrument to assess nursing documentation in general hospital settings.
Paans
Wolter
W
Candidate Research and Innovation Group in Health Care and Nursing, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, The Netherlands. w.paans@pl.hanze.nl
Sermeus
Walter
W
Nieweg
Roos M B
RM
van der Schans
Cees P
CP
D004282:Documentation / Q000592:standards*; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records; D009426:Netherlands; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D015588:Observer Variation; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results