The Family-Centered Care Assessment Scale: Development and Psychometric Evaluation in a Turkish Sample

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Nursing
• Healthcare Assessment Tools
• Family-Centered Care Research

Background:

• Family-centered care is crucial for hospitalized children's well-being.
• Existing assessment tools may not adequately capture parental perspectives on family-centered care.
• Developing a specific scale is necessary to evaluate this care modality effectively.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a family-centered care assessment scale (FCCAS) for parents of hospitalized children.
• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the newly developed FCCAS.
• To provide a reliable instrument for assessing family-centered care in pediatric contexts.

Main Methods:

• A methodological study involving 360 parents of hospitalized children across two medical faculty hospitals.
• Data collection using socio-demographic forms, a parallel family-centered care scale, and the draft FCCAS.
• Psychometric evaluation included construct validity (exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses) and reliability (Cronbach's Alpha, test-retest correlation).

Main Results:

• The exploratory factor analysis resulted in a 21-item, three-dimension FCCAS.
• The scale demonstrated strong content validity (Index=0.92).
• High internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha=0.94) and test-retest reliability (r=0.90) were confirmed.
• Confirmatory factor analysis validated the three-factor structure.

Conclusions:

• The developed Family-Centered Care Assessment Scale (FCCAS) is a valid and reliable measurement tool.
• FCCAS can be utilized to assess family-centered care in pediatric clinics, excluding neonatal units.
• The scale is suitable for use in descriptive and intervention studies focused on family-centered care.