title: Development of a questionnaire to measure the key attributes of the community palliative care specialist nurse role.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recent worldwide economic events have forced an examination of the nurse's contribution to high-quality, effective, person-centred care. Since the role of specialist nurses is considered one of the least understood or valued developments in nursing, specialist nurses must demonstrate their contribution to quality, person-centred health care.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To develop a questionnaire which aims to measure the quality of care provided by palliative care specialist nurses from the patients' perspective and to undertake initial validation.
  
  
  METHODS
  The process of questionnaire development involved six phases including systematic literature reviews, patient advisory groups and expert panel reviews, each of which contributed to the questionnaire face and content validity. Johnston's Expert Palliative Care Nurse Model (2002; 2005) provided an evidence-based framework for the development of the questionnaire, and enabled the identification of the key attributes of the palliative care specialist nurse role, thereby providing the themes on which to base the questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Quality Measure for Palliative Nursing, a questionnaire, was developed. The themes identified in the questionnaire--personal characteristics, communication skills, knowledge, relationship with patient and providing comfort--aim to facilitate measurement of the quality of care provided by palliative care specialist nurses. Designed for use by palliative patients the Quality Measure for Palliative Nursing is a one-page questionnaire comprising of 15 questions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Quality Measure for Palliative Nursing is unique since it aims to measure the quality of care provided by community palliative care specialist nurses, and could also be used to measure patient satisfaction with the quality of care provided. Further testing is recommended to ensure that this questionnaire can provide reliable and valid results.
authors.affiliation: Team Leader, Community Macmillan Nurses and the Hospital Palliative Care Team, Cornhill Macmillan Centre, Perth Royal Infirmary, Perth, Scotland UK.
authors.forename: Dee
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cameron
authors.forename: Bridget
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Johnston
mesh_terms: D003152:Community Health Nursing; D006801:Humans; D024802:Nurse's Role; D013041:Specialties, Nursing; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Humanistic Nursing Theory; Palliative care nursing; Patient-reported outcome measure; Quality; Specialist nurse; patient-centred