developing a readiness assessment tool for weaning patients under mechanical ventilation

a bstract             mechanical ventilation is one of the major supportive interventions in intensive care units. weaning the patients from mechanical ventilation and its related criteria are of great importance due to the related complications. as there is no comprehensive standard to allocate the time of weaning and due to lack of local research in this fi eld, development of a comprehensive tool to measure patients’ readiness for weaning from mechanical ventilation is essential. therefore, the present study was conducted with an aim to develop a readiness assessment tool for weaning patients from mechanical ventilation background:       materials and methods:  this was a qualitative study with delphi multi-triangulation design. in the fi rst stage, the related items were extracted from the textbook and through searching the databases. in the second stage, after primary development of the items and based on supervisors’ indications, a questionnaire was made and used for assessment through delphi methods. twenty individuals, meeting the inclusion criteria, were selected through purposive sampling and their viewpoints concerning acceptability of the items were collected. in the third stage, the items with appropriateness over 70% were selected, and in the fourth stage, the f i nal questionnaire was developed after a session with a panel of experts and supervisors. in the present study, in the fi rst stage, the needed items were collected from various articles and books to provide items extraction. in stages two to four, manual calculation and investigation made by a panel of experts and the research team were adopted. a three-domain questionnaire is the product of experts’ consensus in the present study, which can be used to reduce the length of connection to mechanical ventilation and its complications.