Determining Intervention Fidelity From Chronological Field Notes.
OBJECTIVE
Intervention fidelity (IF) is a relatively recent methodological consideration in nursing research that refers to the adherent and competent behaviors by the interventionist. The purpose of this study was to explore an alternative method of determining IF using chronological field notes (CFNs).


METHODS
A secondary analysis using data from an intervention study. A randomly selected sample of CFNs (N = 181) written by interventionist nurses (N = 20) were coded using the Collaborative Study Psychotherapy Rating Scale, a validated fidelity instrument used in similar studies.


RESULTS
The study provides no evidence that the field notes could be used for determining intervention fidelity.


CONCLUSIONS
Further research is needed on IF that would provide less intrusive an alternate method.
Kent State University, College of Nursing, Kent, Ohio, USA.
Jo
J
Dowell
Linda
L
Beeber
Todd
T
Schwartz
D000328:Adult; D015982:Bias; D003152:Community Health Nursing; D004282:Documentation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000451:nursing; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards*; D009820:Ohio / Q000453:epidemiology; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results