Psychometric Analysis of the Spanish-Language Version of the Instrument for the Evaluation of Handovers in Critically Ill Patients in Urgent and Emergency Care Settings

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Patient handover is the process by which the responsibility for care is transferred from one health care professional to another. Given the lack of validated scales to assess the handover of critically ill patients, our aim was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Instrumento de Evaluación de la Transferencia de Enfermos Críticos (IETEC) (English: Instrument for the Evaluation of Handovers in Critically Ill Patients). Methods: Psychometric analysis of the reliability and validity (construct, convergent, and discriminant) of the IETEC. This single-center study included professionals (nurses, physicians, and emergency medical technicians) involved in the care of the critically ill in urgent care and emergency situations. Results: We evaluated 147 handovers of critically ill patients. The KR-20 score was 0.87, indicting good internal consistency. Of the 147 handovers, 117 (79.6%) were classified as unsafe and 30 (20.4%) as safe. The model fit showed an acceptable construct validity (24 items and four factors: Identification, Communication, Quality, and Family). The Communication domain had the strongest correlation with the total scale (r = 0.876) while Family had the weakest (r = 0.706). The Communication and Family domains were closely correlated (r = 0.599). The IETEC reliably differentiated between safe and unsafe handovers, with a mean (SD) score of 26.3 (1.2) versus 19.0 (4.8), respectively. No significant differences (p = 0.521) in mean IETEC scores were observed between the physicians and nurses. Conclusions: These results show that the IETEC presents adequate psychometric properties and is, therefore, a valid, reliable tool to evaluate handovers in critically ill patients in urgent care and emergency settings.