Primary Care Judgments of Nurses and Physicians, 1976-1978: Clinical Simulation Test -- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Data

This data collection contains four files of the Clinical Simulation Test for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, an instrument developed by the Primary Care Judgements of Nurses and Physicians Research Project to empirically assess the clinical judgements of physicians and nurses in relation to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the period 1976-1978. The purpose of the study was to measure the clinical judgments of health professionals in relation to those of a panel of eight national experts in the specific area of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The instrument simulates the clinical processes from presentation of the chief complaint of a 53-year-old Caucasian male with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease through diagnoses and treatment. The Clinical Simulation Test (Part 1) was given to 200 respondents who were divided into six groups: family practice physicians, nurse practitioners with master's degrees, certified nurse practitioners, public health nurses, pre-medical students, and nursing students. The test contains 13 sections and three diagnostic tests. Nine of the test sections required the respondents to choose from a list of possible treatment actions. Four sections were open-ended and required respondents to identify relevant patient data or to list patient problems. During the process, respondents chose appropriate procedures from among a wide range of possible choices. Items also include an evaluation of the test instrument by the respondents, a proficiency scale which is scored by means of a computer program (Part 2), and the responses of 2 panels of experts used for the purpose of test instrument validation (Parts 3 and 4). Demographic items specify age, sex, education, professional preparation, residency program, specialty, position, and disease management experience of respondents. See the related collection, PRIMARY CARE JUDGMENTS OF NURSES AND PHYSICIANS, 1976-1978: CLINICAL SIMULATION TEST -- HYPERTENSION DATA (ICPSR 7732).