부산대학교 도서관

Aim: To validate the Toronto Symptom Assessment System for Wounds (TSAS-W) for Portuguese speaking countries and to analyse the feasibility of its application by nurses. Method: Methodological transversal, trans-cultural, quantitative, observational, and descriptive study; developed in two phases: phase I consisted in adapting the TSAS-W cultural and linguistically for Portuguese; in phase II the new "Escala de Toronto para Avaliação de Sintomas em Feridas -- Portugal" (TSAS-W-PT) was evaluated for its reliability for the Portuguese context. Results / Discussion: The data collection took place in Portugal in two oncologic centres and in one palliative care centre between October 2018 and May 2019, in 90 patients with 94 malignant wounds. 7 different wound types were found, 61,7% malignant wounds (MW) and 26,6% pressure ulcers (PU). The most common localizations were head and neck (20%) and thorax/breast (14%). Overall, pain and exudate were the symptoms with the highest average score, and pruritus and hemorrhage, the symptoms with the lowest mean score. Cronbach's alpha was 0,827 in the first evaluation and 0,867 in the second evaluation, confirming TSAS-W-PT internal reliability. Nurses confirmed that this assessment system is feasible in the real-life nurse care setting. Conclusion: The validation of the TSAS-W-PT in Portuguese, and for the Portuguese context, came to fill the absence of recording instruments for non-healing wounds and in the context of palliative care, especially MW and PU.