title: Development of an instrument measuring family care.
abstract: This study developed and evaluated an instrument to measure the quality of care given by family members to a patient in the home. The Family Care Measure consisted of 11 items, each of which was rated on a visual analogue scale. Fifteen registered nurses rated the care given by families of 72 eligible patients for whom the nurses had provided nursing care. Estimation of the reliability resulted in a high internal consistency. With deletion of five items from the measure, the internal consistency reliability resulted in a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .93. The six-item instrument correlated moderately, as predicted, with a scale of family coping (r = .76). With acceptable reliability and evidence of construct validity, this measure may be used in research studies, but further testing to assess its usefulness in clinical situations is recommended.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA. N.Ervin@wayne.edu
authors.forename: Naomi E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Ervin
authors.forename: Shu-Pi C
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D022143:Family Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires