Construção e investigação da validade de definições conceituais e operacionais do resultado de enfermagem integridade tissular : um estudo com portadores de úlcera venosa

Abstract

The present study aims at developing conceptual and operational definitions to the results from Tissue Integrity Nursing addressed to venous ulcers patients. In chapter 1, definitions to concepts related to the referred results applied to the evaluation of venous ulcers. In order to do so, an integrative review was made based on the data collection from the periodical International Journal of Nursing Terminologies and Classifications. The sample was composed of eight articles. The information regarding the concepts from Tissue Integrity Nursing and its indicators were gathered, compared, and grouped. Operational and conceptual definitions were proposed to Tissue Integrity Nursing, as well as fictitious indicators were added. The development of definitions from the Tissue Integrity Result enabled a better understanding of its use according to venous ulcers contexts. In chapter 2, the construction of the operational and conceptual definitions was presented to the appreciation of 29 experts, thus validating the content. The selection of the experts was made based on Fehring’s standards. The choice of the participants was made through search on Lattes plataform (CNPq). Two instruments were used: one related to the expert’s profile, and the other related to the analysis of the conceptual and operational indicators. The instrument’s final version showed 18 indicators, and three of them were fictitious. Three indicators proposed by Nursing Outcomes Classifications NOC were excluded, as well as the item Fatigue (fictitious). The experts’ suggestions and remarks were analyzed and most of them were also abided by. Finally, in chapter 3, we dealt with the execution of the clinical validation of the proposed definitions along with the patients afflicted with venous ulcers. The validation study was held with 22 patients. The instruments used were clinical and identification data, and also indicators with operational definitions. Ten nurses applied the instruments, some of them had operational definitions and the others did not. Friedman’s test showed the average difference between the evaluators’ groups. The differences were calculated in at least one of the groups by the Minimal Detectable Change (MDC) method, besides the intraclass correlation coefficient. Except from the indicator ‘texture’, Friedman’s test and the MDC method showed that the indicators presented significant statistical differences between the two groups (with or without operational definitions). However, the MDC method showed that the evaluation differences between the evaluators from the group that used the operational definitions was not significant. It was noticed that the intraclass correlation values from the group without the definitions were inferior to the one that used those definitions. The operational definitions built, except from the indicator ‘texture’, enabled greater uniformity and similarity between the evaluations of patients affected with venous ulcers. Bearing this in mind, the thesis that the use of definitions in the evaluation of patients afflicted with venous ulcers enables more accurate evaluation can be confirmed.