A new tool to assess patients' comfort during hospitalization: The Hospital Discomfort Risk questionnaire

Abstract

Aim We aimed to develop a tool for the assessment of the risk of patient discomfort in Spanish hospital wards. Background Several studies described tools to assess comfort but most are long and complex. Methods Cross-sectional study performed in three phases ((a) initial design; (b) refinement and psychometric testing; and (c) internal validation of the Hospital Discomfort Risk [HDR] questionnaire). Results A voluntary expert panel proposed the HDR questionnaire. Internal consistency and factorial analysis were investigated in 270 (53.7% men, mean age 57.33 +/- 18.7 years) inpatients. Based on the Cronbach's alpha, three items were removed to the final 8-item version of the questionnaire. The HDR questionnaire showed a good predictive ability for identifying the risk of discomfort (c-index: .897, 95% CI 0.854-0.930; p < .001). Conclusions The HDR questionnaire could be useful for identifying inpatients at risk of discomfort, but further prospective studies should externally validate these results. Implications in Nursing Management Nurses are the healthcare professionals with better access to patients and the first in identifying complications of hospitalization. Patients' discomfort could be routinely assessed during hospitalizations using the HDR questionnaire. Nurse managers should play an important role in this accomplishment, by promoting its use and knowledge among the nurse staff.