Development of Paediatric-Friendly Care Assessment Scale in Emergency Department: A Cross-Sectional Study

Area of Science:

• Nursing Research
• Pediatric Emergency Care
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Assessing the quality of paediatric care in emergency departments is crucial.
• Existing tools may not adequately capture nurses' perceptions of paediatric-friendly care.
• Validating a specific scale for emergency nurses is necessary.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the psychometric properties of the Paediatric-Friendly Care Assessment Scale in the Emergency Department (PFCAS-ED).
• To assess the reliability, construct validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and criterion-related validity of the PFCAS-ED among clinical nurses.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 463 emergency nurses.
• Participants were randomly divided into two groups for exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.
• Psychometric properties including reliability and various validities were evaluated.

Main Results:

• Exploratory factor analysis identified six key components of the PFCAS-ED, explaining 69.408% of the variance.
• Confirmatory factor analysis validated the six-factor, 28-item structure with satisfactory fit indices.
• The scale demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability and criterion-related validity.

Conclusions:

• The PFCAS-ED possesses excellent psychometric properties for use by clinical nurses.
• The scale is a reliable instrument for evaluating nurses' perceptions of paediatric-friendly care.
• The PFCAS-ED can inform targeted interventions and improve paediatric emergency care strategies.