Northwick Park Dependency Score — a New Scale for Use in Nursing Practice

Abstract

Introduction. Evaluation of functional limitations in patients with ischemic stroke is essential in planning suitable nursing care. The main aim of all nursing procedures taken is to ensure the safety of patients, to provide the best, individualized care fulfilling patients’ needs and to support recovery process, considering the necessary number of nursing staff and time needed for these procedures. A tool helpful in the process of diagnosis and planning care is the Northwick Park Dependency Score — NPDS. Aim. The aim of the present study is to describe the Polish version of this scale and to assess its usefulness by comparing the NPDS with the Barthel Index — considered the “golden standard” for assessing patient’s disability and dependency. Material and Methods. The study included 100 elderly ischemic stroke patients aged 60 to 99 years (mean 76.1, SD 9.07). To assess patient’s dependency and thus the need of nursing care, the NPDS Scale was used. Functional status of patients was assessed with the Barthel Index, and the neurological state using the NIHSS. Results. Most items in NPDS, are similar to the items of the BI. However, the NPDS includes additional important questions regarding cognitive functions, communication and behavioral dysfunctions. It allows to estimate the number of nursing staff and their scope of competences necessary for providing care as well as time needed for particular nursing activities. There is a strong correlation between individual modules in the NPSD and the BI sales (r ≈ 0.90). Nevertheless, these are not interchangeable. The high correlation coefficient confirms the validity of the Polish version of the NPDS. Conclusions. NPDS is a simple and useful tool in nursing care allowing to plan the activities based on objective indicators. Despite many similarities it is not a substitute for the popular Barthel Scale. Therefore, the NPDS should be promoted in the nursing environment as a possible work tool. (JNNN 2018;7(1):4–11)

Keywords

• nursing care
• ischemic stroke
• npds scale