title: VOICE: developing a new measure of service users' perceptions of inpatient care, using a participatory methodology.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Service users express dissatisfaction with inpatient care and their concerns revolve around staff interactions, involvement in treatment decisions, the availability of activities and safety. Traditionally, satisfaction with acute care has been assessed using measures designed by clinicians or academics.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To develop a patient-reported outcome measure of perceptions of acute care. An innovative participatory methodology was used to involve services users throughout the research process.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 397 participants were recruited for the study. Focus groups of service users were convened to discuss their experiences and views of acute care. Service user researchers constructed a measure from the qualitative data, which was validated by expert panels of service users and tested for its psychometric properties.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Views on Inpatient Care (VOICE) is easy to understand and complete and therefore is suitable for use by service users while in hospital. The 19-item measure has good validity and internal and test-retest reliability. Service users who have been compulsorily admitted have significantly worse perceptions of the inpatient environment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A participatory methodology has been used to generate a self-report questionnaire measuring service users' perceptions of acute care. VOICE encompasses the issues that service users consider most important and has strong psychometric properties.
authors.affiliation: Health Service and Population Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, London, UK. joanne.m.evans@kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Jo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Flach
authors.forename: Emese
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Csipke
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Glossop
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McCrone
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Craig
authors.forename: Til
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wykes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008131:London; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D008605:Mental Health Services; D008875:Middle Aged; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult