Aim: This article is a report of a study which developed and tested the validity and reliability of the RAPIDS-Tool to measure student nurses' simulation performance in assessing, managing and reporting of clinical deterioration.
Background: The importance for nurses to recognize and respond to deteriorating patients has led educators to advocate for increasing use of simulation for developing this competency. However, there is a lack of evaluation tools to objectively evaluate nurses' simulation performance on clinical deterioration.
Method: The study was conducted in three phases. Phase 1 began with development of items for the RAPIDS-Tool from the basis of a literature review and a panel of national experts' consensus. Phase 2 established the content validity of the RAPIDS-Tool by a panel of international experts and by undertaking a pilot test. Phase 3 involved testing the psychometric properties of the RAPIDS-Tool, on 30 video-recorded simulation performances, for construct validity, inter-rater reliability, and correlation between two scoring systems.
Results: The process of development and validation produced a 42-item RAPIDS-Tool. Significant differences (t=15.48, p<0.001) in performance scores among participants with different levels of training supported the construct validity. The RAPIDS-Tool demonstrated a high inter-rater reliability (ICC=0.99) among the three raters and a high correlation between the global rating and checklist scores (r=0.94, p<0.001).
Conclusion: The RAPIDS-Tool provides a valid and reliable tool to evaluate nurses' simulation performances in clinical deterioration. This may prove useful for future studies that investigate outcomes of simulation training.
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