Construction of an emergency nursing-sensitive quality indicator system for patients with severe trauma: a modified Delphi study in the Chinese context

Objectives The aim of the study was to develop a nursing-sensitive quality indicator system for emergency care of patients with severe trauma, providing a scientific measurement tool for evaluating the quality of emergency trauma nursing. Design A modified Delphi study. Participants Experts working in emergency surgery or trauma surgery departments were recruited. First, initial nursing-sensitive quality indicators were derived from an analysis and synthesis of existing evidence and semistructured interviews with 12 clinical experts. Subsequently, two-round expert consultations were conducted with 15 experts from various regions of China to refine and finalise the indicators. Finally, the analytic hierarchy process was used to determine the weights of each indicator. Results The valid response rates of questionnaires in the two rounds of expert consultation reached 88.89% and 93.75%, respectively, and the expert authority coefficients were 0.856 and 0.880. The experts ultimately reached a consensus, establishing a nursing-sensitive quality indicator system for emergency care of patients with severe trauma, comprising 3 first-level indicators, 11 second-level indicators and 49 third-level indicators. Conclusions This study provides a tool for the assessment of emergency nursing service quality for patients with severe trauma, establishing a scientific and effective nursing-sensitive quality indicator system to evaluate and improve the quality of nursing services provided by emergency nurses to patients with severe trauma.