Case
Abstract
Psychometric properties and testing of instruments, tools, and surveys are a challenge and often foreign concept for many students and experienced nurses. This case study describes the approach taken to establish sensitivity and specificity of the Maxwell Swallow Screen, a screening tool developed by a speech-language pathologist for use by nurses in the acute care setting to determine the possibility of aspiration and the need for further comprehensive evaluation. Each step of the research process is described from the perspective of how the team coalesced expertise while facing challenges in design, implementation, and analysis. Because this type of research was far from the traditional project improvement project familiar to the team, we worked to create a structure that merged education with open dialogue by: creating relatable terms and definitions, immersing all team members in the literature for perspective and design, and creating shared purpose in the interest of improved patient outcomes. Practical considerations and lessons learned include the need to create a research team comprising experts with complementary skill sets, establish simple rules and definitions around the structure and process to provide a roadmap, create a safe environment for open dialogue within the team to ensure integrity of data and congruent understanding of data collection plan, and build education and communication of the research project’s progress into each step to ensure stakeholders were kept in the loop. Ultimately, the research provided statistically significant results to validate the Maxwell Swallow Screen as a sensitive and specific screening tool for stroke patients to identify risk for aspiration.
