Reliability Testing of the Psychosocial Vital Signs Assessment Tool

The current article describes preliminary psychometric testing of the Psychosocial Vital Signs (PVS) Assessment Tool, a tool for assessing psychosocial variables of health to enhance holistic patient-centered care. The five psychometric measurements of the PVS Assessment Tool include four patient self-reporting items: (a) perception, (b) support, (c) coping, (d) anxiety, and one clinician observation item of (e) anxiety level. A simple psychometric design was used for testing the PVS Assessment Tool for internal reliability among the five measurement items and interrater reliability of the clinician observation item of anxiety level. A convenience sample of nursing students was used to test the tool. Thirty-two tools were used for testing internal reliability and 29 paired tools were used for interrater reliability testing of the clinician observation item. A Cronbach's alpha of 0.806 determined satisfactory internal reliability and a Cohen's kappa of 0.808 determined satisfactory interrater reliability.