Translation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Dutch Families Importance in Nursing Care: Nurses' Attitudes Scale Based on the Generalized Partial Credit Model

The instrument called Families Importance in Nursing Care-Nurses' Attitudes (FINC-NA) is used to measure nurses' attitudes toward involving families in their nursing care. The aim of this study is to evaluate the FINC-NA scale in a population of Dutch nurses and add new psychometric information to existing knowledge about this instrument. Using a cross-sectional design, 1,211 nurses received an online application in 2015. Psychometric properties were based on polychoric correlations and the Generalized Partial Credit Model. A total of 597 (49%) nurses responded to the online application. Results confirmed a four-subscale structure. All response categories were utilized, although some ceiling effects occurred. Most items increase monotonically, and the majority of items discriminate well between different latent trait scores of nurses with some items providing more information than others. This study reports the psychometric properties of the Dutch language FINC-NA instrument. New insights into the construct and content of items enable the possibility of a more generic instrument that could be valid across several cultures.

[Value of basic and intensive management of patients with heart failure; results of a randomised controlled clinical trial]

OBJECTIVE

To determine the efficacy of 2 nurse-directed programmes of different intensity for the counselling and follow-up of patients hospitalised for heart failure, compared with standard care by a cardiologist.

DESIGN

Multicentre randomised clinical trial (www.trialregister.nl: NCT 98675639).

METHOD

A total of 1023 patients were randomized after hospitalisation for heart failure to 1 of 3 treatment strategies: standard care provided by a cardiologist, follow-up care from a cardiologist with basic counselling and support by a nurse specialising in heart failure, or follow-up care from a cardiologist with intensive counselling and support by a nurse specialising in heart failure. Primary end points were the time to rehospitalisation due to heart failure or death and the number of days lost to rehospitalisation or death during the 18-month study period. Data were analysed on an intent-to-treat basis.

RESULTS

Mean patient age was 71 years, 38% were women, 50% had mild heart failure and 50% had severe heart failure. During the study, 411 patients (40%) were rehospitalised due to heart failure or died from any cause: 42% in the control group, and 41% and 38% in the basic and intensive support groups, respectively (differences not significant). The time to rehospitalisation or death was similar in the 3 groups: hazard ratios for the basic and intensive support groups versus the control group were 0.96 (95% CI: 0.76-1.21; p = 0.73) and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.73-1.17; p = 0.53), respectively. The number of days lost to rehospitalisation or death was 39,960 in the control group; this number was 15% less in the intervention groups, but the difference was not significant. However, there was a trend toward lower mortality in the intervention groups. In all 3 groups, more visits occurred than planned, which may have had a considerable effect on care, notably in the control group.

CONCLUSION

The results of this study indicated that the provision of additional counselling and support by a nurse specialising in heart failure as an adjuvant to intensive follow-up care provided by a cardiologist does not always lead to a reduction in rehospitalisation frequency.