Search

Demands made on nursing staff are expanding and changing, requiring a broad set of competencies that require evaluation and enhancement in places. This study used the Nurse Competence Scale to measure self-assessed competence among nurses working in three municipal health-care services in Norway. Results indicate that nurses perceive their competence as being satisfactory overall, but there are areas that would benefit from improvement: providing patients' family members with education and guidance, quality assurance, and using research to evaluate and develop services. These competencies could be the focus of departments' future competence plans. The Nurse Competence Scale can be used to assess the impact of training and the efficacy of competence-enhancing actions.

Background: The objective of this study was to test the data quality, test-retest reliability and hospital-level reliability of the Patient-Reported Incident in Hospital Instrument (PRIH-I)., Methods: 13 incident questions were included in a national patient-experience survey in Norway during the spring of 2011. All questions and a composite incident index were assessed by calculating missing-item rates, test-retest reliability and hospital-level reliability. A multivariate linear regression on a global item regarding incorrect treatment was used to assess the main sources of variation in patient-perceived incorrect treatment at hospitals., Results: Five of the 13 patient-incident questions had a missing-item rate of >20%. Only one item met the criterion of 0.7 for test-retest reliability (wrong or delayed diagnosis), seven items had a score of >0.5, while the remainder had a reliability score of <0.5. However, the reliability was >0.7 for six of 10 items tested at the hospital level, and >0.6 for the remaining four items. A patient-incident index based on 12 of the incident items had no missing data, the test-retest reliability was 0.6 and the hospital-level reliability was 0.85., Conclusions: The PRIH-I comprises 13 questions about patient-perceived incidents in hospitals, and can be easily and cost-effectively included in national patient-experience surveys with an acceptable increase in respondent burden. Although the missing-item rate and test-retest reliability were poor for several items, the hospital-level reliability was satisfactory for most of the items. The incident items contribute to a patient-reported incident index, with excellent data quality and hospital-level reliability.

Objective: To assess the data quality of two approaches to scaling items within the Patient Experiences Questionnaire (PEQ); a five-point scale with descriptors for all scale points and a 10-point scale with descriptors only at the end points., Study Design and Setting: The two versions were pretested through cognitive interviews with 14 patients. The PEQ was then mailed to 1,000 patients after inpatient treatment at a large university hospital in Norway, randomized to receive the 5- or 10-point scale versions. Response rates, missing data, item means, floor, and ceiling effects were assessed. Regression analysis was used to examine the impact of response scale on missing data, floor, and ceiling effects after controlling for age, education level, and health status., Results: The five-point scale produced data with unimodal and fairly symmetric distributions in contrast to the highly skewed J- and U-shaped distributions for the 10-point scale. The five-point scale data had significantly lower item means, floor, and ceiling effects. Regression analysis showed that the type of scale explained a significant component of the variation in both floor and ceiling effects., Conclusion: The five-point scale performed better than the 10-point scale and is more suitable for assessing patient experiences. The revised PEQ will be used in Norwegian national surveys., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The General Practitioner Experiences Questionnaire (GPEQ) measures community mental health centres from the perspective of GP but lacked accessibility scales and documentation of centre level reliability., Objectives: To assess the psychometric properties of the GPEQ following the inclusion of four new accessibility items and estimate centre level reliability for all scales and items., Methods: The design of the study is cross-sectional national survey. The setting of the study is postal survey of GPs in Norway evaluating 80 community mental health centres in the four health regions in Norway during autumn of 2008. Three thousand nine hundred and forty-two GPs were sent a postal questionnaire with the GPEQ and were asked to assess their community mental health centre responsible for general adult psychiatric services., Results: Two thousand two hundred and nine (56.0%) GPs returned a completed questionnaire. Psychometric testing including factor analysis and internal consistency reliability identified seven scales with satisfactory reliability and validity: accessibility (two items, new scale), competence (four items), discharge letter (three items), emergency situations (two items), guidance (three items), referrals (three items, new scale) and workforce situation (four items). All scales met the criterion of 0.7 for Cronbach's alpha. The centre level reliability was >0.8 for all scales, while all items met the criterion of 0.7., Conclusions: The inclusion of new accessibility items resulted in two new scales in addition to the original five scales in the GPEQ, serving to improve the content validity of the instrument. Centre level reliability was high for all scales and items, giving further support to use GPEQ scores as quality indicators.

Objective: To develop and evaluate the Patient Experiences Questionnaire for Out-of-Hours Care (PEQ-OHC) in Norway., Design: Questionnaire development was based on a systematic literature review of existing questionnaires, interviews with users, and expert group consultation. Questionnaire testing followed a postal survey of users who had attended out-of-hours centres in the North, West, and South of Norway., Setting: Primary care out-of-hours services., Subjects: The questionnaire was pre-tested with 13 users and was then mailed to 542 users who had had telephone contact and/or had a consultation with one of three out-of-hours centres., Main Outcome Measures: Data quality, internal consistency, reliability, and construct validity., Results: The questionnaire was considered to have good content validity by the expert group. There were 225 (41.51%) respondents to the postal questionnaire. Levels of missing data at the item and scale level were acceptable. Principal component analysis supported the four scales of user experiences relating to telephone contact, doctor services, nursing services, and organization. Item-total correlations were all above 0.5 and Cronbach's alpha was above 0.80 for all scales. Statistically significant associations based on explicit hypotheses were evidence for the construct validity of the PEQ-OHC., Conclusion: The development of the PEQ-OHC followed a rigorous process based on a systematic review, interviews with users, and an expert group which lend the questionnaire content validity. The PEQ-OHC has evidence for data quality, internal consistency, reliability, and construct validity.

The Patient Perspective Survey (PPS) is designed to enhance consultation outcome and patient participation among general practice patients with complex health problems. This article presents the final version of the survey. This version is more condensed, tested for psychometric and clinical properties, and with increased emphasis on coping. The development and testing was performed in two phases with two groups of GPs and patients. Indications for use and criteria for rejection of items were defined, based on comprehensive data analysis and clinical judgement. The number of items was reduced to 38 items. The majority of diagnoses were related to psychosocial or musculoskeletal disorders. For the survey's main dimensions (psychological and somatic items, everyday life situation and coping) sound psychometric properties were identified. Seven open-ended questions were found useful for obtaining important new information and stimulating processes, often related to coping aspects. The revised 38-item PPS represents a condensed and final version, with increased focus on coping, and sound psychometric properties.