Translation and Validation of the Toronto Pain Management Index, French-Canadian Version

Background To provide effective pain management, nurses must have sufficient knowledge and adequate beliefs about pain management. In Quebec, however, nurses seem to be generally uninvolved in pain management, and there is little significant evidence shedding light on nurses' pain management knowledge and beliefs in postoperative settings. To perform such studies, a valid questionnaire in French to assess nurses' knowledge and beliefs is required. Some valid questionnaires are available in English, but none are available in French. Purpose This article describes the process of translation, adaptation, and preliminary validation of the Toronto Pain Management Index into French. Results For temporal stability of the Toronto Pain Management Index, French-Canadian version, the result of intraclass correlation coefficient for the total score of this questionnaire is 0.59 (CI: 0.44-0.72). Conclusion Following this process, the French version of this questionnaire has suitable face and content validity and can be used to evaluate nurses' knowledge and beliefs about pain management in postoperative settings.