ASSESSING DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR IN OLDER ADULTS - THE DISRUPTIVE-BEHAVIOR-SCALE

The present study developed and tested an instrument to assess the sev erity of disruptive behavior in geropsychiatric patients. A qualitativ e analysis of existing instruments and literature was used to develop the 45 items of the Disruptive Behavior Scale (DBS). Disruptive behavi ors were weighted using a Q-sort performed by experts in geropsychiatr ic nursing. Weighted scores were used to predict perceived patient dis ruptiveness. Nurses providing care served as data collectors. They com pleted the DBS for each shift across a one-week period for each of the older adults, indicating the frequency of occurrence of each of the 4 5 behaviors for each hour. Weighting improved the ability to predict p erceived patient disruptiveness over other schemes to score disruptive behavior. The DBS provides a measure of patient disruptiveness that t akes into account the frequency and impact of individual behaviors. So me items of the DBS were found to be more reliable than others.