Development, validation and reliability testing of the hospice care environment scale.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Nursing Research
• Psychometrics

Background:

• The World Health Organization recognizes environmental factors as crucial for hospice care development.
• A comprehensive scale to assess the hospice care environment for nurses was previously unavailable.
• Environmental factors significantly influence nursing behaviors and the quality of care provided.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a reliable instrument for assessing the hospice care environment from a nursing perspective.
• To identify key environmental factors impacting hospice care delivery.
• To provide a tool for evaluating and improving hospice care settings.

Main Methods:

• Literature review and semi-structured interviews to generate initial items.
• Two rounds of Delphi expert consultations with 16 experts for scale refinement.
• Psychometric evaluation including item analysis, reliability, and validity testing on 500 oncology nurses.

Main Results:

• The Hospice Care Environment Scale comprises two dimensions and 13 entries.
• Excellent reliability was demonstrated with Cronbach's α coefficients of 0.970 for the overall scale and above 0.952 for dimensions.
• High content and construct validity were confirmed, with a stable factor structure and good feasibility (3-minute completion time).

Conclusions:

• The developed Hospice Care Environment Scale is a valid and reliable instrument.
• The scale effectively assesses the environment of hospice care services.
• This tool can guide the evaluation and improvement of hospice care environments for nurses.