Consensus on scales for an interdisciplinary health assessment tool for the elderly population

Abstract

Objective: to describe the consensus of the content of an instrument for assessing interdisciplinary health care of the elderly population. Methods: consensus study conducted among physicians, nurses, and social workers, contemplating the construction of instrument and the pre-test for selection of scales for use in practice. Questionnaire consisting of questions that identified representative scales in the assessment of the elderly. The scales that obtained consensus criterion of equal to or greater than 75% were considered selected by the experts. Sample was composed through snowball sampling, resulting in 101 participants. Results: of the 13 scales submitted,the professionals indicated that eight were suitable for use and two were already applied within their practice. The excluded became part of the recommendations for good practices in elderly care. A discrepancy was identified between what they consider to be useful and of interest versus what is applied in practice. Conclusion: consensus among experts allowed us to identify and select interdisciplinary assessment data for a proposed instrument to support the care process. Contributions to practice: this contributes to awareness about the use of recommended scales for the elderly and to avoid the overlapping of the same interventions by several professionals, with significant gains for this population.

Interdisciplinary health consultations for older people in Portugal: primary care and hospitals

“…These results are not in line with our expectations, since the scope of the interventions carried out by each group is considerably different. A scaled consensus study (14) carried out by the same researches of this paper found eight scales that could be used by physicians, nurses, and social workers. However, those that were rejected (ecomap, genogram, Zarit, family Apgar, and lifestyle profile) are part of the public policies for the older population.…”

Consulta interdisciplinar de saúde para pessoas idosas em Portugal: atenção primária e hospital

“…A inexistência de diferenças significantes entre os dois grupos de profissionais (hospital e AP) no tocante aos instrumentos de utilidade para a prática com pessoas idosas e a distribuição muito similar dos instrumentos entre todos, não vão ao encontro do esperado, uma vez que o âmbito da intervenção é consideravelmente diferente. Estudo de consenso de escalas (14) , realizado pelos investigadores, identificou oito passíveis de utilização por médicos, enfermeiros e assistentes sociais, porém as rejeitadas (ecomapa, genograma, zarit, apgar familiar e perfil do estilo de vida) constam das políticas de saúde para pessoas idosas. Estamos perante práticas que comprometem a assistência holística da pessoa idosa, pois todos os profissionais avaliam as mesmas dimensões, deixando outras, essenciais, em descoberto.…”