Providing nurses in critical care with updated consensus guidelines on the management of patients admitted to intensive care units with an open abdomen

Nursing guidelines on the management of a patient admitted to intensive care units with an open abdomen are available. The study opted to discuss the nursing guidelines, using a modified e-Delphi method. A three round modified e-Delphi was conducted between June and September of 2023, where the guidelines were presented to the expert panel members using Qualtrics software program and allowing the experts to rate the nursing guideline statements and accompanying nursing interventions in terms of importance and practicality. Experts in the study was defined as nurses, intensivists and surgeons who are knowledgeable about and have experience in the management of patients admitted to the intensive care units with an open abdomen. The experts could also add any suggestions or comments to the nursing guideline statements and accompanying nursing interventions. The Qualtrics software program was used to sort quantitative the data. Qualitative data collected by using a Likert scale were downloaded from Qualtrics and analyzed. The qualitative data related to the nursing guideline statements were coded in groups as important/very important vs not important/not important at all and the data related to the nursing interventions were coded in groups as important/very important vs not important/not important as well as practical/very practical vs not practical/not practical at all. The data collected was used to refine the guideline, in round 3 the refined nursing guideline was presented to the experts and no further suggestions or comments were received.