An evaluation of validity, reliability, and readability of the Critical Care Family Needs Inventory

The benefits of caring for the family as well as the patient are well supported in the literature. The Critical Care Family Needs Inventory (CCFNI) has been used by several researchers to identify the needs of family members when a relative is admitted to a critical care setting. However, no research to date has comprehensively evaluated the instrument's content validity, test--retest reliability, or readability. The CCFNI, after review by a panel of 16 experts, was given on two separate occasions to a random sample of 51 family members of adult patients in both medical and surgical intensive care units. Overall content validity was established, but the panel found numerous redundancies among the need statements, suggesting that several items might need to be eliminated or combined. Among family members, a percentage of exact agreement of 70% or greater was calculated for 86.7% of the need statements demonstrating acceptable test--retest reliability. The Gunning Fog Index, used to evaluate readability, was calculated at 9.0, indicating that the CCFNI could be read and understood by those with a ninth grade reading level. Suggestions are made for additional studies to establish the reliability and validity of this widely used instrument.