Evidence of Content Validity of the Outcome “Knowledge: Wound Management” for Family Caregivers of Individuals with Surgical Wounds

PurposeTo obtain evidence of content validity for the nursing outcome "Knowledge: Wound Management (3209)" for family caregivers from Brazil and Colombia of individuals with primary closure surgical wounds in the abdominal area.MethodsThis methodological study was conducted with nurses and family caregivers from Brazil and Colombia, adapting the Nurse-Patient outcome content validation method. Nurses and caregivers evaluated the importance of the indicators using a five-point Likert-type scale. A total of 41 indicators were evaluated, including 32 specific outcome indicators and nine proposed for inclusion in the classification. For each country, the importance index was calculated and classified, identifying critical, complementary, or unnecessary indicators. The importance indices from both countries were combined to determine the outcome content validity (OCV).FindingsThe study included 60 participants, 15 nurses, and 15 family caregivers from each country. Combining the importance indices from Brazil and Colombia, 18 (43.9%) indicators were classified as critical, and 16 (39.0%) indicators as complementary. Seven (17.1%) indicators were not considered important for assessing knowledge about primary wound closure in the abdominal area. The OCV score for the outcome was 0.8 out of 1.ConclusionThis study presents evidence of content validity for the outcome "Knowledge: Wound Management (3209)", where 34 indicators were considered adequate to evaluate the knowledge of family caregivers from Brazil and Colombia regarding the care of primary surgical closure wounds in the abdominal area. These indicators are critical because they were developed by considering the perspectives of wound care nurses and family caregivers in both countries.Implications for Nursing PracticeThis study presents a validated set of nursing outcome indicators from "Knowledge: Wound Management (3209)" specifically tailored to assess the knowledge of family caregivers from Brazil and Colombia who assist individuals with primary closure surgical wounds in the abdominal area.