Measuring Family-centered Care in Intensive Care Units: Developing and Testing Psychometric Properties

Background: The availability of a valid scale to measure family-centered care (FCC) in intensive care units (ICUs) is of utmost importance. Purpose: the present study aimed to develop and test the psychometric properties of a new tool for measuring FCC in ICUs from the perspectives of patients’ family members. Method: This methodological study was conducted from May 2018 to November 2019 at two Iranian universities of medical sciences. The scale items were thus designed based on the integration of the findings of a qualitative study and the results of a literature review. Then, face validity and content validity of the given scale were assessed. A total number of 204 and 203 family members of patients admitted to ICUs were recruited through convenience sampling method to examine construct validity via exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The data were also analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 25) and AMOS software. The reliability of this scale was ultimately tested using Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest correlation. Results: In the initial design, a 35-item scale was obtained. As face validity and content validity were determined, the number of items reduced to 26 cases. Following exploratory factor analysis, a 20 item scale containing 5 components (factors) including dignity, receiving information, support, family empowerment, and access to the physician, accounting for 63.4% of the total variance of the scale was developed. The reliability of this research tool was found acceptable based on Cronbach’s alpha and intraclass correlation coefficient by 0.89 and 0.93; respectively. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: This study concluded with the development of a new scale for measuring FCC in ICUs entitled “FCCS-ICU”. Accordingly, administrators and nurses are suggested to practice it to measure the extent and the manner of FCC implementation in ICUs from the perspectives of patients’ family members.