DESCRIPTION OF CUES NURSES USE FOR DIAGNOSING ACTIVITY INTOLERANCE.
Contributors: University Of Illinois At Chicago, Health Sciences Center.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 222
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Activity Intolerance is a common problem affecting patients' quality of life, but there is little validation of the important cues nurses use for diagnosing this health state. The purpose of this study was to identify the most important cues used by knowledgeable and experienced nurses for diagnosing Activity Intolerance related to an imbalance between oxygen supply and demand.

Levine's principles of the conservation of structural integrity and the conservation of energy provided a framework for identifying 210 cues for Activity Intolerance from the literature. The list contained cues of varying quality and in amounts surpassing the nurse's information processing capabilities. The list of cues was reduced to 127 cues by eliminating vague, imprecise, redundant, and lay terminology.

The Delphi technique was used to gain consensus from a national sample of 122 nurse experts on the most important cues for Activity Intolerance from the list of 127 cues. The nurses rated each cue on a 7-point scale. To revise their judgments, the nurses received feedback on their responses and the group responses for each round. Consensus of opinion on the ratings was achieved when (a) more than 75% of the subjects agreed on the ratings and (b) the interquartile range of response was less than 1.

After three Delphi rounds, 19 cues were identified as the most important for diagnosing Activity Intolerance. However, estimates by the nurse experts of the frequency of cue occurrence for these important cues indicated that the cues occurred infrequently with and without Activity Intolerance. Thus, the cues had specificity but lacked sensitivity for the diagnosis of Activity Intolerance.

The findings of the study cannot be considered sufficient validation of the cues for diagnosing Activity Intolerance. Consensus was gained on a reduced number of cues for Activity Intolerance, and while the nurse experts indicated that they are most important when they do occur, they do not occur often. Further study is needed to identify a limited set of cues for diagnosing Activity Intolerance that would be more generalizable in nursing practice.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-08, Section: B, page: 2264.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO, HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, 1987.

School code: 0806.