Protocol validation for the preservation of forensic traces in health services

Abstract

Care protocols integrate norms, routines and procedures related to a particular health problem/condition. This study proposed the elaboration and validation of a protocol on the preservation of forensic traces in urgent/emergency health services. Methodological study with a quantitative approach. The protocol content validation was performed by 16 judges with expertise in the area of forensic sciences. The measures used to assess the degree of agreement were Percentage of Agreement, Content Validity Index (CVI) and Cronbach's Alpha. A rate of agreement with values above 80% was considered acceptable in the study; a value higher than 78% was considered for CVI calculated per item, and the minimum acceptable value for Cronbach's Alpha was 0.70. The average agreement rate of the instrument was 89.9% (±14.0), varying between the blocks of questions. Of all the items evaluated, 97.4% had an average CVI above 0.78 (78%).The sum of the items considered relevant by each evaluator resulted in an average score of 0.992 (99.2%) for the CVI of the entire protocol. In the evaluation of the degree of reliability, general Cronbach's Alpha showed a high level of internal consistency of the protocol, equivalent to 0.864. The protocol had acceptable psychometric measures of content validity, being valid for use in the preservation of forensic traces by health professionals in urgent/emergency health services.