Construction of the continuous nursing need index system based on discharge readiness for patients with spinal cord injury

Objective To construct the continuous nursing need index system based on discharge readiness for patients with spinal cord injury so as to guide the clinical nursing practice. Methods From January 2017 to July 2018, this study selected 115 spinal cord injury inpatients of Spine Surgery Department at a ClassⅢ Grade A hospital in Qingdao as subjects by convenience sampling. The Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale (RHDS) was used to investigate those patients. According to the investigation results, this study primarily built the continuous nursing need index system for spinal cord injury patients. Delphi method was used to select 25 experts for two rounds of consultation so as to establish the final the continuous nursing need index system for spinal cord injury patients. Results Among 115 spinal cord injury patients, the total score and item average score of RHDS were (60.39±22.12) points and (5.27±2.75) points respectively. Among two rounds of consultation, the authoritative coefficients of experts were 0.78 and 0.81 respectively, and the coordination coefficients were 0.343 and 0.423. In the second round of consultation, the variation coefficients ranged from 0.09 to 0.18. The final the continuous nursing need index system for spinal cord injury patients included 5 first-level indexes and 33 second-level indexes. Conclusions The continuous nursing need index system for spinal cord injury patients has a high level of authoritative coefficients and is scientific practical which can provide a basis for discharge health instruction in spinal cord injury patients and promote the safe transition in hospital-community-family as well as comprehensive rehabilitation. Key words: Spinal cord injuries; Continuous nursing; Discharge readiness; Nursing needs; Delphi method