Design and Testing of a Postanesthesia Care Unit Readiness for Discharge Assessment Tool.

PURPOSE: This article describes the development and psychometric testing of a new Postanesthesia Care Unit (PACU) Readiness for Discharge Assessment Tool (RDAT) that can be used in assessing patients' readiness for discharge from a phase 1 PACU.

DESIGN: This study used an instrument development methodology described by Waltz and Strickland that included item development and testing for content and convergent validity and interrater reliability.

METHODS: Items were developed from a review the literature, best practice exemplars, and input from an expert panel. Ten items were identified for patient assessment using a dichotomous response set (yes/no). Two nurses independently assessed the patients using the RDAT and Respiration, Energy, Alertness, Circulation, and Temperature, and comparing independent assessments using the RDAT.

FINDING: The content validity index was determined to be a = .80, and interrater reliability index was a = 1.0.

CONCLUSIONS: The RDAT is a useful, safe tool to assess patients' readiness for discharge from the PACU.