Nurses’ Knowledge on Paracetamol Dose Administration in Paediatrics: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

Introduction:

Paracetamol is widely prescribed to treat fever and pain in children. However, paracetamol poisoning can increase the risk of temporary liver dysfunction, irreversible liver failure, and even death from multiorgan failure. Acute hepatotoxicity can be induced by unintentional or intentional paracetamol overdose in paediatrics. Our study aimed to develop a tool to assess the nurses’ knowledge on paracetamol dose administration in paediatrics.

Methods:

We designed a questionnaire based on published literature. We performed two rounds of content validation and one round of face validation as a minor revision was required for one of the items (item 1). The content validation involved an expert panel of six senior nurses whereas the face validation involved ten raters. The content validity index (CVI) and face validity index (FVI) reflected the content validity and response process validity respectively.

Results:

The item-level content validity index (I-CVI) for item 1 improved from 0.67 to 1.00 after the first round of content validation. After modification, the scale-level content validity index, based on the average (S-CVI/Ave) and universal agreement method (S-CVI/UA) indicated good content validity. All face validity indices showed good response process validity.

Conclusion:

This questionnaire is shown to be valid to measure nurses’ knowledge on paracetamol dose administration in paediatrics.