NURSING-CARE DEPENDENCY - DEVELOPMENT OF AN ASSESSMENT SCALE FOR DEMENTED AND MENTALLY-HANDICAPPED PATIENTS

This article describing the first phase in the development of an asses sment scale of nursing-care dependency (NCD) for Dutch demented and me ntally handicapped patients focuses on the background to the study and the content validation of the nursing-care dependency scale. The scal e aims to characterize the patients' nursing-care dependency as part o f the assessment step in the nursing process, acid is based on Henders on's 14 human needs. The Deiphi technique, using two panels of experts (n = 44), was applied to reach consensus on significant indicators of nursing-care dependency. The experts' reasoning was used to develop c riteria for the assessment of nursing-care dependency. Ultimately, the Delphi rounds generated 15 NCD items with their descriptions and item criteria. There was no fundamental difference between the NCD scales for demented and mentally handicapped patients. Nevertheless, there ar e two versions of the NCD scale because of the need to apply specific concepts in the nursing care of either population. The original Dutch version of the NCD scale is also available in English and in Norwegian .