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Development and psychometric testing of the Relational Care Scale
Katherine S McGilton1, Dorothy M Pringle, Linda L O'Brien-Pallas
1Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Ontario, Canada. mcgilton.kathy@torontorehab.on-ca
Journal of Nursing Measurement
|December 1, 2005
Summary
Researchers developed and tested the Relational Care Scale (RCS) to measure nursing staff
Area of Science:
- Nursing
- Gerontology
- Healthcare Quality
Background:
- Effective relational care is crucial for residents in nursing homes.
- Existing measures may not adequately capture the nuances of nurse-resident interactions.
- Assessing relational care is vital for improving patient outcomes and satisfaction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate the self-report Relational Care Scale (RCS).
- To provide a reliable instrument for measuring relational care provided by nursing staff to nursing home residents.
- To facilitate research on interventions aimed at enhancing nurse-resident relational care.
Main Methods:
- Content validity assessed by experts and literature review.
- Pilot testing with 30 long-term care (LTC) residents for clarity and stability.
- Scale administered to 50 residents in an intervention study and 72 residents in a correlational study across two LTC facilities in Ontario, Canada.
Main Results:
- The 6-item Relational Care Scale (RCS) demonstrated strong construct validity.
- Positive correlations were found between RCS scores and both a Relationship Visual Analog Scale (VAS) (r = .63, p < .0001) and an observational Relational Behavior Scale (r = .42, p < .001).
- The RCS proved to be a reliable and valid instrument for measuring relational care.
Conclusions:
- The Relational Care Scale (RCS) is a psychometrically sound instrument.
- The RCS can be utilized to assess the quality of relational care in nursing homes.
- This scale can support the evaluation of interventions designed to improve staff-provided relational care for residents.
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