Development of an instrument measuring family care

This study developed and evaluated an instrument to measure the quality of care given by family members to a patient in the home. The Family Care Measure consisted of 11 items, each of which was rated on a visual analogue scale. Fifteen registered nurses rated the care given by families of 72 eligible patients for whom the nurses had provided nursing care. Estimation of the reliability resulted in a high internal consistency. With deletion of five items from the measure, the internal consistency reliability resulted in a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .93. The six-item instrument correlated moderately, as predicted, with a scale of family coping (r = .76). With acceptable reliability and evidence of construct validity, this measure may be used in research studies, but further testing to assess its usefulness in clinical situations is recommended.