Design, content validation, and reliability assessment of a chemotherapy order template: Expert based content validation

Background Cancer remains the second leading cause of death worldwide, with nearly 10 million annual deaths. Chemotherapy, though essential, is highly complex and prone to dosing errors, interactions, and adverse effects. To improve safety and standardization, a Chemotherapy Order Template (COT) was developed based on NCCN guidelines. Objective To design, validate, and assess the reliability of a structured Chemotherapy Order Template that supports safe, accurate, and consistent chemotherapy prescribing in oncology settings. Methods The validation process included developing the template using NCCN (2025) guidelines, constructing a 22-item Likert-scale tool, obtaining multidisciplinary expert review, and conducting statistical testing using Pearson's correlation and Cronbach's alpha. A total of 54 experts participated. Results The expert panel comprised 46.30% physicians, 33.33% academicians, and 9.26% clinical pharmacists. The validation tool demonstrated excellent internal consistency with an overall Cronbach's alpha of 0.99. All 22 items showed significant positive correlations (p < 0.01), confirming strong construct validity. Expert feedback led to key enhancements in the COT. Conclusion The validated COT is a reliable and clinically relevant tool that improves safety, accuracy, and adherence to oncology guidelines in chemotherapy prescribing. Its structured design, based on expert consensus, promotes standardization, reduces medication errors, and supports coordinated, high-quality cancer care.