To Örebro University

Introduction: To assess operating room (OR) nurses' attitudes towards pressure ulcer prevention, the Attitude towards Pressure Ulcer Prevention (APuP) instrument was developed.

Aim: The aim of this study was to psychometrically evaluate the Attitude towards Pressure Ulcer Prevention (APuP) instrument in a Swedish OR context.

Materials and methods: A psychometric evaluation study was conducted, using a convenience sample, between February and August 2020. Validity (content, construct, discriminatory power) and reliability (stability and internal consistency) were evaluated.

Results: The first survey (test) was completed by 284 Swedish OR nurses, of whom n = 50 (17.6%) completed the second survey (retest). A Principal Component Analysis was conducted for the 13-item instrument. The KMO value for this model was 0.62. Bartlett's test for sphericity was statistically significant (p 0.001). Five factors were identified which accounted for 56% of the variance in responses related to attitudes toward pressure ulcer prevention. The Cronbach's α for the instrument "attitude towards Pressure Ulcer Prevention" was 0.66. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.49 (95% CI = 0.25-0.67).

Conclusion: This Swedish version of the APuP- OR is the first step in the development of an instrument to measure OR nurses' attitudes towards PU prevention in a Swedish OR context. The reliability of the instrument was low and the validity moderate. A larger sample and the revision or addition of items related to the context of the operating room should be considered in order to confirm aspects of the psychometric properties.