Todsen Tobias, Bohr Anne, Hovgaard Lisette Hvid, Eið Rebekka Consuelo, Benfield Thomas, Svendsen Morten B S, Kirkby Nikolai, Konge Lars, von Buchwald Christian, Melchiors Jacob, Tolsgaard Martin
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery and Audiology, Rigshospitalet-Copenhagen University Hospital, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation, Capital Region, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
Diagnostics (Basel). 2021 Oct 26;11(11):1987. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics11111987.
Proper specimen collection is the most important step to ensure accurate testing for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and other infectious diseases. Assessment of healthcare workers' upper respiratory tract specimen collection skills is needed to ensure samples of high-quality clinical specimens for COVID-19 testing. This study explored the validity evidence for a theoretical MCQ-test and checklists developed for nasopharyngeal (NPS) and oropharyngeal (OPS) specimen collection skills assessment. We found good inter-item reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.76) for the items of the MCQ-test and high inter-rater reliability using the checklist for the assessment of OPS and NPS skills on 0.86 and 0.87, respectively. The MCQ scores were significantly different between experts (mean 98%) and novices (mean 66%), < 0.001, and a pass/fail score of 91% was established. We found a significant discrimination between checklist scores of experts (mean 95% score for OPS and 89% for NPS) and novices (mean 50% score for OPS and 36% for NPS), < 0.001, and a pass/fail score was established of 76% for OPS and 61% for NPS. Further, the results also demonstrated that a group of non-healthcare educated workers can perform upper respiratory tract specimen collection comparably to experts after a short and focused simulation-based training session. This study, therefore, provides validity evidence for the use of a theoretical and practical test for upper respiratory specimens' collection skills that can be used for competency-based training of the workers in the COVID-19 test centers.
正确采集样本是确保对2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）和其他传染病进行准确检测的最重要步骤。需要评估医护人员的上呼吸道样本采集技能，以确保获得用于COVID-19检测的高质量临床样本。本研究探讨了为评估鼻咽（NPS）和口咽（OPS）样本采集技能而开发的理论多项选择题测试和检查表的效度证据。我们发现，多项选择题测试项目的项间信度良好（克朗巴哈系数α = 0.76），使用检查表评估OPS和NPS技能时，评分者间信度较高，分别为0.86和0.87。专家（平均98%）和新手（平均66%）的多项选择题得分存在显著差异，<0.001，并确定及格/不及格分数为91%。我们发现专家（OPS平均得分95%，NPS平均得分89%）和新手（OPS平均得分50%，NPS平均得分36%）的检查表得分存在显著差异，<0.001，并确定OPS的及格/不及格分数为76%，NPS为61%。此外，结果还表明，一组未接受过医疗保健教育的工作人员在经过简短且集中的基于模拟的培训课程后，能够与专家一样进行上呼吸道样本采集。因此，本研究为使用理论和实践测试评估上呼吸道样本采集技能提供了效度证据，该测试可用于COVID-19检测中心工作人员的基于能力的培训。
