[Cultural adaptation and validation of the instrument requirement for directed attention]

The aim of this study is to translate and validate the instrument Requirement for Directed Attention (RDA), developed by Guirardello, into Brazilian culture. The instrument, comprised of 39 items, addresses situations in the work environment of critical care and medical-surgical units that demand the nurse's direct attention. The methodological approach consists of the following steps: (a) translation of the instrument to the Portuguese language; (b) back-translation; (c) committee review; and (d) pre-testing of the instrument's final version. The Portuguese language version was applied to 44 nurses. The data resulted in high internal consistency for the total of the items (alpha = 0.91), and for the domains: Physical Environment (alpha = 0.78), Psychological Envi-ronment (alpha = 0.85) and the Behavioral Environment (alpha = 0.80). Only the domain Information had a low value (a = 0.12). These results suggest that the Portuguese language version of the RDA can be used to evaluate the attention demands for the nurse.