Instrument Psychometrics: Parental Satisfaction and Quality Indicators of Perinatal Palliative Care

Despite a life-limiting fetal diagnosis, prenatal attachment often occurs in varying degrees resulting in role identification by an individual as a parent. Parents recognize quality care and report their satisfaction when interfacing with health care providers.

The aim was to test an instrument measuring parental satisfaction and quality indicators with parents electing to continue a pregnancy after learning of a life-limiting fetal diagnosis.

A cross sectional survey design gathered data using a computer-mediated platform. Subjects were parents (n=405) who opted to continue a pregnancy affected by a life-limiting diagnosis. Factor analysis using principal component analysis with Varimax rotation was used to validate the instrument, evaluate components, and summarize the explained variance achieved among quality indicator items. The Prenatal Scale was reduced to 37 items with a three-component solution explaining 66.19% of the variance and internal consistency reliability of 0.98. The Intrapartum Scale included 37 items with a four-component solution explaining 66.93% of the variance and a Cronbach α of 0.977. The Postnatal Scale was reduced to 44 items with a six-component solution explaining 67.48% of the variance. Internal consistency reliability was 0.975.

The Parental Satisfaction and Quality Indicators of Perinatal Palliative Care Instrument is a valid and reliable measure for parent-reported quality care and satisfaction.

Use of this instrument will enable clinicians and researchers to measure quality indicators and parental satisfaction. The instrument is useful for assessing, analyzing, and reporting data on quality for care delivered during the prenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal periods.