Investigating the interrater reliability of a novel functional outcome measure for use in the burns intensive care unit: The Functional Assessment for Burns - Critical Care (FAB-CC).

INTRODUCTION: Intensive Care Unit Acquired Weakness challenges the clinical care of critically ill patients. Despite a surge in validated ICU functional outcome measures following the publication of Clinical Guideline 83 'Rehabilitation After Critical Illness' by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2009), there are none composed specifically for use in the Burns ICU. We therefore developed and tested the inter-rater reliability of a burn specific novel functional outcome measure; The Functional Assessment for Burns-Critical Care (FAB-CC).

OBJECTIVES: This research aimed to investigate the interrater reliability of the FAB-CC.

METHODS: A quantitative reliability study assessed the ability of the FAB-CC to obtain accurate data when utilised by three separate raters (m=3) scoring the same clinical episodes (n=24).

RESULTS: The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) for the FAB-CC as a complete tool revealed excellent agreement (ICC 0.998; P<0.001, 95% confidence interval 0.996-0.999), with Cronbach's Alpha (α 0.999). Individual components of the FAB-CC displayed excellent agreement (ICC>0.983; P<0.001) with narrow 95% confidence intervals.

CONCLUSIONS: The FAB-CC is a novel functional outcome measure that is reliable for use with critically ill burn patients. It has demonstrated real clinical utility in the identification and management of ICU-AW in this unique patient group.