The Development Of Nursing Ability Assessment Scale For Dementia Caregivers

Objectives1.To develop The Nursing Ability Assessment Scale for Dementia Caregivers.2.To evaluate psychometric parameters of The Nursing Ability Assessment Scale for Dementia Caregivers.Methods1.Based on the Farran's Model of Caregiver Skill Building/Effectiveness and Rogers' s humanism theory,the item pool was formed.2.Items were formed through literature view?in-depth interviews and Delphi.The in-depth interviews was carried out with a sample of 9 long-term caregivers and experts related with dementia.The the trial test was carried out to test if the questionnaire was fit for dementia caregivers.Then the test scale was formed that contained 38 items.3.The test scale was tested among 293 dementia caregivers in hospital and old people's home in Zhengzhou.(1)The critical ratio and correlation coefficient were used to analyse the items.(2)The conten validity and construct validity were used evaluate the validity of the scale.(3)Reliability was assessed by Cronbach's ?,split reliability,and test-retest reliability.Results1.There were four themes and ten subthemes according to the qualitative research.The first theme was life care,including keep clean,supervise the diet and prevent injuries;The second theme was humanistic care,including protecting dignity and privacy and keeping interests and hobbies for patients;The third theme was disposal of illness including handling mania,handling roaming symptoms,training memory;The fourth theme was improving personal qualities,including caring,patience and responsibility.2.After two rounds of Delphi,two items were added,one item was deleted,two items was merged into one item,then the initial draft was formed of 5 subscales 38 items.3.Two items were deleted after item analysis and exploratory factor analysis(EFA).The final scale was 5 dimensions 36 items,dementia knowledge(13 items),care skills(13 items),personal qualities(4 items),caregivers' health(3 items),relationship(3 items).4.Reliability test(1)The Cronbach'? of the scale was 0.907,and five factors were 0.986?0.965?0.995?0.804?0.641;(2)The split reliability of the scale was 0.907,and five factors were 0.954?0.916?0.995?0.675?0.692;(3)The test-retest reliability of the sacle was 0.980,and five factors were 0.871?0.993?0.980?0.845?0.919,the difference was statistically significant(P<0.01).5.Validity test:(1)Content validity: The item content validity index(I-CVI)was 0.8571~1,the scale content validity index average(S-CVI/Ave)was 0.895,and the scale content validity index universal agreement(S-CVI/UA)was 0.985.(2)Construct validity: EFA developed 5 factors and explained for 79.440%,all items factor loads were ?0.4.Conclusions1.The Nursing Ability Assessmenty Sacle for Dementia Caregivers contains 5 subscales 36 items,the scale has good reliability and validity,stability and sensibility.2.The scale has good reliability and validity,fits the psychometric requirements,and it can be popularized to evaluate the nursing ability of dementia caregivers.