Development of a Scale to Assess End-of-life Nursing Care Provided by Home-visit Nurses for Cancer Patients and Its Reliability/Validity

Abstract

Objective: The present study aimed to develop a scale to assess end-of-life nursing care provided by home-visit nurses for cancer patients and examine its reliability and validity.

Methods: A draft of the Scale to Assess End-of-life Nursing Care Provided by Home-visit Nurses for Cancer Patients was created based on data extracted qualitatively and inductively from the results of a field survey and literature review. A self-completed questionnaire survey involving home-visit nurses across Japan was conducted, using a 5-grade Likert method with 23 items, and 669 nurses were selected as analysis subjects.

Results: A factor analysis based on the maximum likelihood promax rotation was conducted. Two factors (15 items) were extracted: [Support provided for cancer patients and their families to live a secure and peaceful life] and [Support provided through interprofessional collaboration to provide reliable home care and respond to sudden changes in conditions]. The reliability and validity of the scale were examined, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the entire scale was .948, and the criterion-related validity was .745. The goodness of fit of the model was as follows: GFI = .882, AGFI = .841, CFI = .925, and RMSEA = .097.

Conclusion: The results of the study suggest that the reliability and validity of the scale were within the permissible ranges, and that it can be used by home-visit nurses and managers of home-visit nursing stations who support cancer patients living at home and their families, as indices of the characteristics and levels of their nursing care support.