Development and validation of an instrument to examine wound management in hand therapy within the South African context.

Abstract

Background: Wound management is internationally recognised as part of hand

therapy practice. However, the role of occupational therapists in this area of

upper limb rehabilitation in South Africa is unclear.

Aim: To develop and validate a survey to examine occupational therapists’

wound management practices in hand therapy within the South African

context.

Methods: A sequential exploratory mixed methods study design was utilised

to develop a survey. Thereafter, a panel of 11 occupational therapists with relevant

experience in the field rated the relevance of survey items to produce

item-content validity indices (I-CVIs).

Results: An initial survey containing 27 questions containing 214 items was

presented for review. Experts rated 171 items (69%) relevant with an I-CVI of

0.90-1.00. A further 32 items (13%) were rated relevant with an ICVI of >0.80

<0.90. A total of 45 items (18%) were irrelevant with I-CVIs ≤0.80. The final survey

consisted of 19 questions containing 139 items, excluding those that obtained

relevant demographic data.

Conclusions: The survey demonstrated good content and face validity but is

limited to use with occupational therapists in South Africa. Validation for use

with different populations in different settings is recommended.

Implications for practice

This article offers researchers within the field of occupational therapy methodology

for the development and validation of a survey. Suggestions for improving

the overall validity of the survey are given. The survey may be used in

future studies with occupational therapists providing hand injury care in South

Africa. Use of the survey with different populations requires validation using

the intended target popul