Content Validity Testing of the Maternal Fetal Triage Index.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the development and content validity testing of the Maternal Fetal Triage Index (MFTI), a standardized tool for obstetric triage.

DESIGN

Online survey.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants included 15 registered nurses, 15 certified nurse-midwives, and 15 physicians from across the United States who provided maternity care.

METHODS

A convenience sample of experienced clinicians was used as content validators for the MFTI. An item content validity index (I-CVI) was computed for the tool's items and a scale content validity index (S-CVI) was computed for the tool's scale based on the responses submitted via the online survey. Two rounds of content validation occurred.

RESULTS

In the first round of testing, a total of 12 of 61 items in the MFTI did not meet the I-CVI threshold of greater than 0.78 because of disagreement about clinical condition (75%) or priority level placement (25%). In the second round of testing, all but 3 of the 69 content items in the revised version of the MFTI had I-CVI thresholds greater than 0.78. These 3 items were related to vital sign values. The overall S-CVI score calculated for Round 2 only was 0.95, which was greater than the threshold of 0.90.

CONCLUSION

The results of the content validity testing of multidisciplinary validators suggest that the MFTI is a valid tool for use in obstetric triage and evaluation settings.