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. 2025 Mar 28;11(1):7.
doi: 10.1038/s41394-025-00702-4.

Development of the nurse care assessment for in-hospital spinal cord injury rehabilitation

Frederik Skovbjerg  1   2   3 , Stephanie Hilsløv Bøhm  4 , Erhard Trillingsgaard Næss-Schmidt  4   5 , Randi Kjær Steensgaard  6 , Simon Svanborg Kjeldsen  4   7
Affiliations

Development of the nurse care assessment for in-hospital spinal cord injury rehabilitation

Frederik Skovbjerg et al. Spinal Cord Ser Cases. .

Abstract

Study design: A development and reliability study.

Objectives: To develop an assessment tool designed to categorize the care needs of inpatients with Spinal Cord Injuries.

Setting: Spinal Cord Injury Centre of Western Denmark.

Methods: Inspired by previous tools, NCA-SCI was refined through an iterative process with experienced clinicians. Content validity was established via consensus meetings and focus group interviews, resulting in 17 items across five categories: no/minor assistance, moderate assistance, severe nursing assistance, and unstable situations needing extensive nursing care. Face validity was ensured through iterative clinical feedback, and reliability was tested with four nurses scoring 36 patients.

Results: Content validity and feedback led to a comprehensive, practical tool. Inter-rater reliability showed 81.4% agreement (Kappa = 0.69), while intra-rater reliability had 78.9% agreement (Kappa = 0.65), indicating moderate reliability.

Conclusion: The NCA-SCI assesses nursing care needs in SCI rehabilitation, offering a practical tool with moderate reliability. The development of the NCA-SCI led to an easily usable tool for planning and coordinating daily care at a highly specialized unit.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics approval and consent to participate: All methods in this study were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations. This project was registered and approved as a quality improvement project by the hospital management of Regional Hospital Central Jutland, under reference number 324489. As this project involved the use of information from admitted patients’ electronic health records as part of their current treatment, without direct participant involvement, it was conducted in accordance with regulations governing quality improvement projects. Formal patient consent was not required, as per institutional and ethical guidelines. Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used ChatGPT to rephrase sentences and increase understandability. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Overview of the development process.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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