Priority interventions from the NIC and expected results from the NOC in patients with a nursing diagnosis of Ineffective breathing pattern

The aim of the study was to validate the priority interventions from the Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) and the expected results from the Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC) in patients hospitalized in an intensive care unit, with a nursing diagnosis of ineffective breathing pattern.Twenty experts helped with the verification of the priority interventions and expected results. They assigned scores to individual interventions and results, using a Likert scale. During testing, the experts had to indicate with the help of the Likert scale how they perform the various activities in the selected NIC and how they evaluate different indicators in the selected NOC. They could select from the following scale: 1 = not at all, 2 = seldom, 3 = sometimes, 4 = many times, 5 = always. The data were consequently analysed by assigning a value to each of the responses (1 = 0; 2 = 0.25; 3 = 0.5; 4 = 0.75; 5 = 1). The maximum value that could be achieved in the evaluated field was 1, and the minimum was 0. Activities (for NIC) and indicators (for NOC) which were assigned a value of ≥0.8, were identified as priority use, and when they were assigned a value of ≤0.5, they were excluded on the grounds that the nurses performed them minimally or not at all. Others were taken as commonly used.Based on an analysis of the related NIC (specifically: respiratory monitoring 3350, ventilation assistance 3390, chest physiotherapy 3230, airways suctioning 3160 and airways management 3140), we concluded that only 62 activities from a total number of 158 were used by nurses. In the NOC, from a total number of 83, 50 indicators were assessed and 32 can be considered typically rated. On the basis of the results, our experts considered most of the NIC interventions unusable. On the other hand, more than half of the NOC indicators were rated as useful.The results of the study point to the fact that the introduction of the classification systems NIC and NOC would require further testing in clinical practice in the Czech Republic in order for them to be used effectively.