Frommelt Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying Scale Form B: psychometric testing of the Italian version for students

Nurses' attitudes toward caring for dying patients have an impact on the quality of the care provided. Education can improve knowledge and attitudes toward end-of-life care. No validated tool that measures such attitudes is available for Italian nursing students. The aim of this study was to translate the Frommelt Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying Scale (FATCOD) Form B from English into Italian and to establish its validity and reliability within an Italian population of students. A two-stage design was used. Stage I adapted the original version of the tool and tested it for content validity through a multistep process. Stage 2 tested its psychometric properties by analyzing internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity. The convenience sample consisted of 465 nursing students from all the universities of one Italian region. Measures of stability showed a very good overall (0.87) intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The discriminating capacity of the scale was adequate with good values of asymmetry and kurtosis for most of the items. Good internal consistency was found. The six factors derived from the factor analysis are the following: Fear/Malaise, Communication, Relationship, Care of the family, Family as Caring, and Active Care. FATCOD Form B-I is a valid, reliable, and acceptable tool for evaluation of attitudes toward end-of-life care in Italian students. It measures six specific dimensions that should be highlighted during health care student education and training.