Development of a tool to assess core cardiorespiratory physiotherapy skills: a Delphi study.

PURPOSE

This study reports on the development of an outcome measure designed to evaluate pre-registration physiotherapy students' ability in performing core cardiorespiratory skills.

METHOD

A four round, e- Delphi study using an international panel of expert cardiorespiratory physiotherapists involved in pre-registration student education was undertaken. In round one participants identified what they look for in students competently performing core cardio-respiratory physiotherapy assessment and treatment skills. These items were refined in rounds two and three. Item content validity score (iCVI) of ≥ 0.8 at round four identified consensus. Scale content validity index (SCVI) was calculated.

RESULTS

Response rate for round one was 46% (6/13). Additional experts were invited to participate and response rates increased to 71% (round 2), 88% (round 3) and 100% (round 4). Of the 207 items across the seven skills identified in round one, 140 were presented in round four. Of these, consensus was achieved for 128 items, with 12 being excluded. The SCVI was 0.907.

CONCLUSION

This e-Delphi study enabled the development of a draft outcome measure, which aims to assess performance of seven cardiorespiratory physiotherapy skills. This tool will enable rigorous evaluation of different education methods to establish their effectiveness. However, it is first necessary to establish construct validity and assess inter and intra-rater reliability.