Critical care nurses' knowledge of evidence-based guidelines for preventing infections associated with central venous catheters: an evaluation questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: Lack of adherence to recommended evidence-based guidelines for preventing infections associated with use of central venous catheters may be due to nurses' lack of knowledge of the guidelines.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a reliable and valid questionnaire for evaluating critical care nurses' knowledge of evidence-based guidelines for preventing infections associated with central venous catheters.

METHODS: A total of 10 nursing-related strategies were identified from current evidence-based guidelines for preventing infections associated with use of central venous catheters. Face and content validation were determined for selected interventions and multiple-choice questions (1 question per intervention). The test results of 762 critical care nurses were evaluated for item difficulty, item discrimination, and quality of the response alternatives or options for answers (possible responses).

RESULTS: All 10 items had face and content validity. Values for item difficulty ranged from 0.1 to 0.9. Values for item discrimination ranged from 0.05 to 0.41. The quality of the response alternatives (0.0-0.8) indicated widespread misconceptions among the critical care nurses in the sample.

CONCLUSION: The questionnaire is reliable and has face and content validity. Findings from surveys in which this questionnaire is used can lead to better educational programs for critical care nurses on infections associated with use of central venous catheters.