Design and validation of a questionnaire on nursing competence in the notification of medication incidents.

AIM: To design and perform a face and content validation of a questionnaire to measure the competence of hospital RN to report medication incidents.

METHODS: Content and face questionnaire validation descriptive study. A review of the literature was performed for the creation of ítems. A panel of six experts assessed the relevance of the inclusion of each ítem in the questionnaire by calculating the position index; ítems with position index >0.70 were selected. The questionnaire was piloted by 59 RN. Finally, a meeting was convened with experts, in order to reduce the length of the piloted questionnaire through review, discussion and decision by consensus on each item.

RESULTS: From the literature review, a battery of 151 ítems grouped into three elements of competence: attitudes, knowledge and skills was created. 52.9% (n=80) of the ítems received a position index > 0.70. The response rate in the pilot study was 40.65%. The median time to complete the questionnaire was 23:35minutes. After reduction by the experts, the final questionnaire comprised 45 ítems grouped into 32 questions.

CONCLUSIONS: The NORMA questionnaire, designed to explore the competence of hospital RN to report medication incidents, has adequate face and content validity and is easy to administer, enabling its institutional implementation.