Introduction:

Stressors provoke different bio-psychological responses. By identifying situations that produce stress in patients in the intensive care unit, it is possible to generate positive interventions that mitigate these factors and improve their quality of life.

Objective:

To validate a measurement instrument for the identification of stressors in the intensive care unit from the Environmental Stressors Questionnaire in Spanish.

Methods:

Psychometric research carried out in three phases: a) construction of an instrument for identifying stressors in intensive care units from the Environmental Stressors Questionnaire in Spanish and bibliographic review of the theoretical references Cannon, Selye, Lazarus and Folkman, Fleming, Baum, Singer and Shinn, to justify the construction of 33 items; b) facial validity through comprehensibility analysis with potential intensive care unit patients; and c) content validity through expert criteria and calculated using Fleiss' kappa (κ) index, as well as the modified Lawche’s and Aiken's V coefficient.

Results:

An instrument with psychometric properties: facial validity by comprehension analysis greater than 90% and optimal contents determined by Fleiss' kappa (κ) index of 0.80, modified Lawche's index of 0.89, and Aiken's V coefficient of 0.93.

Conclusions:

The measurement instrument created is valid and allows to identify stressors of patients in intensive care units. This instrument constitutes a valuable contribution that qualifies nursing practice and proposes care alternatives that improve its quality.

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