title: The family experiences of in-hospital care questionnaire in severe traumatic brain injury (FECQ-TBI): a validation study.
abstract: Family members are important for support and care of their close relative after severe traumas, and their experiences are vital health care quality indicators. The objective was to describe the development of the Family Experiences of in-hospital Care Questionnaire for family members of patients with severe Traumatic Brain Injury (FECQ-TBI), and to evaluate its psychometric properties and validity.
  
  
  
  The design of the study is a Norwegian multicentre study inviting 171 family members. The questionnaire developmental process included a literature review, use of an existing instrument (the parent experience of paediatric care questionnaire), focus group with close family members, as well as expert group judgments. Items asking for family care experiences related to acute wards and rehabilitation were included. Several items of the paediatric care questionnaire were removed or the wording of the items was changed to comply with the present purpose. Questions covering experiences with the inpatient rehabilitation period, the discharge phase, the family experiences with hospital facilities, the transfer between departments and the economic needs of the family were added. The developed questionnaire was mailed to the participants. Exploratory factor analyses were used to examine scale structure, in addition to screening for data quality, and analyses of internal consistency and validity.
  
  
  
  The questionnaire was returned by 122 (71%) of family members. Principal component analysis extracted six dimensions (eigenvalues > 1.0): acute organization and information (10 items), rehabilitation organization (13 items), rehabilitation information (6 items), discharge (4 items), hospital facilities-patients (4 items) and hospital facilities-family (2 items). Items related to the acute phase were comparable to items in the two dimensions of rehabilitation: organization and information. All six subscales had high Cronbach's alpha coefficients >0.80. The construct validity was confirmed.
  
  
  
  The FECQ-TBI assesses important aspects of in-hospital care in the acute and rehabilitation phases, as seen from a family perspective. The psychometric properties and the construct validity of the questionnaire were good, hence supporting the use of the FECQ-TBI to assess quality of care in rehabilitation departments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation, University Hospital of North Norway, Sykehusvn.1, 9038, Tromsø, Norway. audny.anke@uit.no.|Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Clinical Medicine, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway. audny.anke@uit.no.
authors.forename: Audny
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anke
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation, University Hospital of North Norway, Sykehusvn.1, 9038, Tromsø, Norway.|Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Health and Care Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Unn Sollid
authors.initials: US
authors.lastname: Manskow
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Psychology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Oddgeir
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Friborg
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.|Institute of Health and Society, Research Centre for Habilitation and Rehabilitation Models and Services (CHARM), Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Cecilie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Røe
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation, University Hospital of North Norway, Sykehusvn.1, 9038, Tromsø, Norway.|Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Health and Care Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Cathrine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Arntzen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000070642:Brain Injuries, Traumatic; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Family satisfaction; Parent satisfaction; Patient satisfaction; Quality of care; Rehabilitation; Traumatic brain injury