Patient-ventilator asynchrony knowledge, attitudes, and practices among ICU health care professionals: questionnaire development.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the development and validation process of a questionnaire to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of ICU health care professionals regarding patient-ventilator asynchrony. METHODS: This was a knowledge, attitudes, and practices questionnaire development study. Item generation was guided by a literature-based conceptual framework, followed by expert review to establish face and content validity. The instrument was refined through specialists in mechanical ventilation and questionnaire design. The tenth version was piloted in Portuguese among ICU health care professionals, including a 30-day test-retest assessment. RESULTS: The final version of the questionnaire comprised 24 items (knowledge, 14 items; attitudes, 4; and practices, 6). Of the 83 ICU health care professionals who consented to participate, 49 completed at least 80% of the questionnaire twice and were included in the analysis. The knowledge section showed acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.73) and moderate test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.48; 95% CI, 0.24-0.67). Median knowledge scores were 71 [57-79] at test and 64 [50-79] at retest, out of 100 (p = 0.052). Attitude scores also showed good test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.68; 95% CI, 0.50-0.81) and a moderate correlation (r = 0.60; p < 0.001), with median scores of 75 (out of 100) in both rounds. Practice item responses were generally consistent between test and retest. CONCLUSIONS: We developed a questionnaire to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to patient-ventilator asynchrony among ICU health care professionals, with evidence of face and content validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability.