Development and validation of the novel nursing activities in the care of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation-supported patients scale.

BACKGROUND

Nurses are members of multidisciplinary teams providing care to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation-supported patients (ECMO-SP). There are no valid and reliable measurements available to assess nursing activities in the care of ECMO-SP.

AIM

To develop and evaluate psychometric properties of a new 27-item nursing activities in the care of ECMO-SP scale.

STUDY DESIGN

A convenience sample was recruited of 76 registered nurses (mean age 41.3 ± 8.7; 71% female) in Israel. The nurses participated in an online survey with software Qualtrics, between March and June 2022. Content and construct validity, as well as internal consistency of the scale were evaluated. The participants also completed the perceived knowledge and skills in the treatment of ECMO-SP scale. The correlations between nursing activities in the care of ECMO-SP and ECMO knowledge were examined using Pearson's correlation.

RESULTS

Exploratory factor analysis extracted four factors, and seven items were excluded from the 27-item scale making it a 20-item scale in its final form. Internal consistency was acceptable for the total scale (α = 0.84) and the four subscales: Factor 1: Nursing care of ECMO-SP not related to the ECMO device (α = 0.90), Factor 2: Activities on ECMO device in emergency (α = 0.82), Factor 3: ECMO device calibrating and monitoring (α = 0.72), and Factor 4: Medication and blood administration through ECMO device (α = 0.73). When examined in confirmatory factor analysis, the 20-item scale yielded acceptable fit indices. A positive correlation was found between perceived ECMO knowledge and all four factors of the nursing activities in the Care of ECMO-SP scale.

CONCLUSIONS

The 20-item scale examining nursing activities in the care of ECMO-SP is ready for use for clinical, educational, and research purposes.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Because there are still no standards for nursing care of ECMO-SP and no agreed quality indicators, this novel scale may help in building such standards and quality indicators.