Parent experiences of paediatric care (PEPC) questionnaire: reliability and validity following a national survey.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the development and evaluation of a parent completed questionnaire to measure parent experiences of inpatient paediatric care, the parent experiences of paediatric care (PEPC).


METHODS
Literature review, parent interviews, pre-testing and a national survey of 6144 parents of children who were inpatients at one of the 20 paediatric departments within Norway in 2005.


RESULTS
Three thousand three hundred and eight (53.8%) parents responded to the questionnaire. Low levels of missing data suggest that the PEPC is acceptable. The questionnaire includes six scales as supported by the results of factor analysis: nursing services (seven items), doctor services (five items), organisation (four items), information--examinations and tests (two items), information--discharge (three items) and hospital facilities (four items). Cronbach's alpha and test-retest correlations ranged from 0.7 to 0.9. Comparisons of scale scores with several variables including overall satisfaction with care and pain control, supported validity.


CONCLUSIONS
The PEPC questionnaire includes important aspects of hospital care from the perspective of the parent. It has good evidence for internal consistency, test-retest reliability and validity and is recommended in surveys of parent experiences of paediatric inpatient care.
Garratt
Andrew M
AM
Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services, Oslo, Norway. andrew.garratt@kunnskapssenteret.no
Bjertnaes
Oyvind Andresen
OA
Barlinn
Jon
J
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010372:Pediatrics; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires