Assessing hospital preparedness for nuclear and radiological events: development a valid and reliable instrument

To develop a valid and reliable instrument for assessing hospital preparedness against nuclear and radiologic events.
This cross-sectional study was conducted through two stages: preparing initial framework for providing the instrument through literature review and a panel of experts; and then determining facet and content validity through impact factor (IF), content validity index (CVI) and reliability through Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The participants included experts and key informants of related disciplines (n=60) selected by purposive sampling method. Data were analyzed using SPSS software.
The final valid and reliable tool consisted of five domains and 56 questions. Preparing physical environments, equipments, human resources, communication, and organizational coordination have been extracted as the main aspects of the tool. Accordingly, all validity and reliability indicators were examined and were found satisfactory (IF ≥ 1.5, CVI ≥ 0.8, Cronbach's alpha ≥ 0.7)
Using such valid and reliable tool for assessing hospital preparedness against nuclear and radiological events can provide valid data for health managers in order to be prepared for such events. Further research is needed for developing valid and reliable tools to assess hospital preparedness against all man-made hazards.