Introduction. The spread of palliative care calls for a careful training of the increasing number of health professionals providing assistance to terminally ill patients and their families. One of the skills needed to improve these patients’ quality of life is to develop positive attitudes towards end-of-life assistance. Among the various tools that assess training needs and effi cacy of training programs, the Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying Scale (FACTOD Form B ) is an effective and reliable instrument, widely used to analyze this type of attitude among nursing students and health professionals. The aim of the article is to verify the Italian Version (FACTOD Form B-I ), so as to spread the use of these tools also to the palliative care fi eld of our country. Methods. The instrument validation has been developed through the following stages: forward and backward translation, focus groups to assess questions’ relevance and vocabulary comprehension, test and retest on a sample of Medicine and Nursing students. Results. The statistical analysis has showed an Interrater Correlation Index between 0.70 and 0.86 for 97% of the items. As for the discriminating capacity, the scale presents good values of asymmetry and kurtosis for most of the items. The internal consistency (Cronbach’s Alpha) is 0.83. On average, the questionnaire has been completed in six minutes and the compilation has been rather easy. Conclusions. FACTOD Form B-I results as a comprehensible instrument, fast and practical to complete, with good psychometric properties, showed by very good values of reproducibility and reliability of the whole scale. Its use in Italy is, therefore, recommended to evaluate the attitude of students and healthcare professionals who take care of terminally ill patients.
Validazione Italiana del Frommelt Atitudes toward care of dying Scale (FACTOD Form B-I)
Mastroianni C;
2009-01-01
Abstract
Introduction. The spread of palliative care calls for a careful training of the increasing number of health professionals providing assistance to terminally ill patients and their families. One of the skills needed to improve these patients’ quality of life is to develop positive attitudes towards end-of-life assistance. Among the various tools that assess training needs and effi cacy of training programs, the Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying Scale (FACTOD Form B ) is an effective and reliable instrument, widely used to analyze this type of attitude among nursing students and health professionals. The aim of the article is to verify the Italian Version (FACTOD Form B-I ), so as to spread the use of these tools also to the palliative care fi eld of our country. Methods. The instrument validation has been developed through the following stages: forward and backward translation, focus groups to assess questions’ relevance and vocabulary comprehension, test and retest on a sample of Medicine and Nursing students. Results. The statistical analysis has showed an Interrater Correlation Index between 0.70 and 0.86 for 97% of the items. As for the discriminating capacity, the scale presents good values of asymmetry and kurtosis for most of the items. The internal consistency (Cronbach’s Alpha) is 0.83. On average, the questionnaire has been completed in six minutes and the compilation has been rather easy. Conclusions. FACTOD Form B-I results as a comprehensible instrument, fast and practical to complete, with good psychometric properties, showed by very good values of reproducibility and reliability of the whole scale. Its use in Italy is, therefore, recommended to evaluate the attitude of students and healthcare professionals who take care of terminally ill patients.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
