Construction of an index system of the biosafety incident response capability for nursing staff: A Delphi study

Abstract

Aim: This study was to establish an index system of the biosafety incident response capability for nursing staff. Background: Faced with austere situations of the biosafety threat, the study on the requirement for nursing staff to respond to the biosafety incidents is not clear. Methods. A modified recommendation for the Conducting and Reporting of Delphi studies was used to guide this study. After two-round Delphi survey, 28 nursing specialists from 6 provinces and cities around China, with expertise in three prevention research, epidemiology, military health service and biosafety incident rescue, established the index system of the biosafety incident response capability for nursing staff. Results: The index system of the biosafety incident response capability for nursing staff following the two-round Delphi survey is composed of 4 primary indicators, namely, biosafety incident preparedness, monitoring capability, protection ability and nursing disposal capabilities, 10 secondary indicators and 49 tertiary indicators. The authority coefficient, judgment coefficient and familiarity degree of Delphi experts were 0.877, 0.911 and 0.843 respectively. Conclusions: The index system of the biosafety incident response capability for nursing staff is scientific and reliable. It is helpful for nursing staff to perform better in biosafety incident by clarifying the specific items of biosafety response capability. Relevance to clinical practice: Nursing staff, who are part of clinical workers, play an important role in maintaining biosafety. They must make clear how to manage the pertinent instances in light of the growing biosafety concern. The nursing staff can use the index system of the biosafety incident response capacity as a training resource to enhance their preparedness for the response, monitoring and early warning, protection and sensitivity management, and nursing disposal capabilities.