Development and content validity of the new version of a patient classification instrument.

The purpose of this study was to reconstruct Perroca's patient classification instrument; and to assess the content validity of the new version. A group of experts comprising ten nurses appraised the instrument, using the Delphi technique. Data collection took place from March 2008 to February 2009 by means of structured questionnaires sent by electronic mail. The new version contained nine nursing care areas. Agreement levels on the instrument structure amounted to > 90%, and ranged between 80 and 96% in the nursing care areas. The refinement of classification instruments is of great importance to generate valid and reliable data, supporting management decision making on nursing care planning as well as nursing workload measurement.