OBJECTIVE: to develop indicators for the nursing outcome Swallowing Status and the
respective conceptual and operational definitions validated by experts and in a
clinical setting among patients after having experienced a stroke. METHOD: methodological study with concept analysis and content and clinical validations.
The Content Validation Index was verified for the scores assigned by 11 experts to
indicators. Two pairs of nurses assessed 81 patients during the clinical
validation: one pair used an instrument with definitions and the other used an
instrument without definitions. The resulting assessments were compared using
Intraclass Correlation Coefficient, Friedman's test, and Minimal Important
Difference calculation. RESULTS: All the indicators, with the exception of the indicator Ability to bring food to
mouth, presented Content Validation Index above 0.80. The pair using the
instrument with definitions presented an Intraclass Correlation Coefficient above
0.80 for all the indicators and similarity was found in all the assessments,
according to the Minimal Important Difference calculation. The pair using the
instrument without definitions presented a low coefficient (ρ<0.75) for all the
indicators. CONCLUSION: the results showed that greater uniformity and accuracy was achieved by the pair
of nurses using the conceptual and operational definitions for the indicators of
the nursing outcome Swallowing Status.