title: Validity and reliability of "Persian Weaning Tool" in mechanically ventilated patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  "Persian Weaning Tool" (PWT) is the only specific, national protocol designed to assess patients' readiness for weaning from mechanical ventilation in Iran. This study was developed to determine the validity and reliability of this protocol.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a psychometric study conducted on 31 patients connected to mechanical ventilation were ready from weaning according to anesthesiologist's diagnosis and was selected through convenient sampling. The patients selected from Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of Al-Zahra Hospital in Isfahan. The sheet data collection includes demographic data, PWT; Burn's Wean Assessment Program (BWAP), and Morganroth's scale. To determine the inter-rater reliability between researcher and his partner, Pearson correlation and pairedt-test were used. To assess the criterion validity of the PWT in relation to Burn's and Morganroth's weaning scales (as criteria), Pearson correlation and McNemar tests were used. To specify a minimum acceptable score of the PWT for weaning from mechanical ventilation, receiver operating characteristic curve was used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that there was statistically significant correlation between score of PWT and BWAP (r= 0.370 withP< 0.05) and there were no statistically significant differences between these tools in terms of identification of patients' readiness for weaning (P= 0.453). There was statistically significant correlation between PWT score obtained by researcher and his colleague (r= 0.928), and the reliability of this tool was approved. The PWTs cut of point was calculated as 57 (sensitivity = 0.679, specificity = 1).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The reliability and validity of the PWT were confirmed for this study's sample size. Consequently, the findings of this study can be used to measure the PWTs effectiveness and applicability in ICUs.
authors.affiliation: Student Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bazrafshan
authors.affiliation: Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Centre, Department of Critical Care Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Social Determinants of Health Research Centre, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Irajpour
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Saeed
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abbasi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Behzad
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mahaki
keywords: Intensive Care Units; Persian weaning tool; mechanical ventilation; reliability; validity