Validation of the comprehensiveness of an instrument on ethical problems in primary care

The study aimed to validate the comprehensiveness of an instrument on the occurrence of ethical problems in primary health care and discuss their results. This is a methodological research. The technique used was Delphi, which seeks to obtain a consensus on a subject by experts, using structured questionnaires that are modified to obtain consensus on the comprehensibility of content. The sample was composed by nine professionals with expertise in primary health care in São Leopoldo. Data collection was in March and April 2011. In the first round, the professional was asked to respond whether the described situation has represented an ethical problem, whether the statement was clear and whether there was any suggestion to rewriting the problem. Were presented thirty-six statements, and to twenty was suggested new rewrite. After the review and systematization the proposed amendments, has begun the second round to seek consensus among all the statements that its writing had changed. In the second round, the consensus required by the method was obtained. Using the method supported significantly to build the instrument in its initial stage, what makes it appropriated and comprehensive for the subsequent steps of the validation.