Revising the critical care family needs inventory for the emergency department

The Critical Care Family Needs Inventory (CCFNI) has been used widely over the last two decades for analysing the needs of family members in the intensive care unit. However, it has significant limitations as a needs assessment tool for use with families in the Emergency Department (ED). This paper discusses the methodological challenges encountered during the process of reviewing and adapting this tool for use in the ED.

The purpose of this study was to revise and adapt the CCFNI for use with a population of family members of critically ill patients in an Australian Emergency Department.

The process of tool revision, adaptation and reconstruction included: critique of the CCFNI; concept definition; item review; content and structure revision; scale revision; and testing with a sample of the target population.

Data collection methods were aimed at accessing a vulnerable population, while enhancing response rate and data quality. A sample of 84 relatives of critically ill patients from one Melbourne Metropolitan Emergency Department was used, 73% of whom returned questionnaires.

Pilot data were examined with the specific purpose of identifying elements of the tool that required refinement or modification. Methods used for establishing reliability and validity of the revised tool provided satisfactory results.

Limitations of this study include inadequate sample size for exploratory factor analysis, and an incomplete response set for some items, which influenced item analysis.

The process used for addressing the identified methodological issues in reviewing and adapting the CCFNI for use in the ED provides a framework for adapting an established tool for a specific purpose.