Turkish Validation of the Infiltration Scale in Infants.

PURPOSE: To test the validity and reliability of an infiltration scale in infants that was adapted for the pediatric population.

DESIGN AND METHODS: The present study is an observational prospective study. The study was conducted in a NICU of a training and research hospital in Istanbul. Data were obtained from131 infants who were <4 kg. Language validity of the scale was tested by expert linguists. The comments of fourteen experts were taken for content validity. For reliability testing, three observers independently evaluated the scale.

RESULTS: Infiltration developed in 28.72% of infants who were examined and grade 2 infiltration was detected at rate of 58%. The content validity index of the scale was 0.93. The Cronbach's alpha was calculated as 0.96 in the agreement of the three observer nurses' evaluations. A highly significant association was detected between the coherence of Cohen's kappa values and Intra-Class Correlation coefficient (ICC) (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: The infiltration scale is a valid and reliable scale in infants. The validity and reliability of the scale has been verified and may be used in the identification of infiltration in infant gestational age between 24 and 39 weeks and weighing <4 kg.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The infiltration scale for infants is a valid and reliable tool for monitoring catheter sites in the prevention of complications such as infiltration due to PIV therapy practices in neonatal intensive care units.