Validity for the critical patients severity classification system developed by the Korean Clinical Nurse Association

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate whether the Critical Patient Severity Classification System (CPSCS) can be effectively used to predict mortality, functional disability, and cognitive ability of brain injury patients at 1 month and 6 months after admission to an intensive care unit.

Design: This study was conducted using a prospective prediction study design.

Setting: Data were collected at a university hospital located in Incheon, South Korea.

Subjects: The study subjects were 190 brain injury patients admitted to a surgical intensive care unit.

Main outcome measures: Mortality, functional disability, and cognitive ability were evaluated directly at 1 month and 6 months after admission to an intensive care unit.

Results: The probability of discriminating survival and death correctly using identified significant predictors of the Critical Patient Severity Classification System (CPSCS) was 77.3% and 81.3% respectively, which are considerably high. However, this system was less reliable at predicting functional and cognitive recovery in brain injury patients.

Conclusions: The result of the present study showed that the Critical Patient Severity Classification System can be used to predict a restricted area of the outcome: mortality, in brain injury patients. To expand its applicability on functional or cognitive recovery, this system needs to include brain injury-specific nursing activities such as, for example, managing brain oedema or brain tubes.