Critical Care Nurses’ Knowledge of Evidence-Based Guidelines for Preventing Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia: An Evaluation Questionnaire

Background Nurses’ lack of knowledge may be a barrier to adherence to evidence-based guidelines for preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Objective To develop a reliable and valid questionnaire for evaluating critical care nurses’ knowledge of evidence-based guidelines for preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Methods Ten nursing-related interventions were identified from a review of evidence-based guidelines for preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia. Selected interventions and multiple-choice questions (1 question per intervention) were subjected to face and content validation. Item difficulty, item discrimination, and the quality of the response alternatives or options for answers (possible responses) were evaluated on the test results of 638 critical care nurses.

Results Face and content validity were achieved for 9 items. Values for item difficulty ranged from 0.1 to 0.9. Values for item discrimination ranged from 0.10 to 0.65. The quality of the response alternatives led to the detection of widespread misconceptions among critical care nurses.

Conclusion The questionnaire is reliable and has face and content validity. Results of surveys with this questionnaire can be used to focus educational programs on preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia.