A systematic review of tools available to measure clinician performance of the complete physical examination and screening of the neonate: a protocol

Main outcome(s): I. To determine if any tool has been developed or validated that measures clinician performance of the complete physical examination and screening of the neonate. If an instrument is identified, the following instrument properties will be measured and reported, using the COSMIN Taxonomy (2010): II. Reliability- as measured by the reported internal consistency, reliability (test-retest; inter-rater; intra-rater), and measurement error (test-retest; inter-rater; intra-rater). III. Validity- as measured by the reported content validity (face-validity), construct validity (structural validity; Hypothesis testing; cross-cultural validity), and criterion validity (concurrent validity; predictive validity). IV. Responsiveness- as measured by the reported change scores. V. Interpretability- as revealed by the qualitative meaning assigned to the quantitative scores, or change in scores. Clinicians performing the complete examination and screening of the neonate may use the results of this review to identify tools which can measure and revalidate their performance of this vital examination which aims to detect symptoms of illness and serious congenial disorders within 72 hours of birth.