Objective: To determine the psychometric properties of the modified Care Dependency Scale for Rehabilitation.
Design: All patients were assessed independently by a different set of two randomly selected nurses.
Setting and subjects: A convenience sample consisting of 1197 patients and 42 nurses was recruited in an Austrian rehabilitation centre specialized on the treatment and care of neurological and orthopaedic patients.
Measures: The Care Dependency Scale for Rehabilitation and the Barthel Index.
Data analysis: To estimate aspects of reliability, Cronbach’s alpha, Cohen’s kappa, percentage agreement, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and standard error of measurement (SEM) were calculated. To evaluate the construct validity, a factor analysis was conducted. Criterion-related validity was examined by comparing data of the modified Care Dependency Scale for Rehabilitation with the Barthel Index and Pearson calculation.
Results: The calculation of Cronbach’s alpha yielded values of 0.97. Kappa values were between 0.89 and 0.96, values of percentage agreement between 96% and 99%, ICC values between 0.94 and 0.99, and SEM values between 0.08 and 0.17. Pearson (r) was 0.88. The factor analysis revealed a one-factor solution.
Conclusion: The modified Care Dependency Scale for Rehabilitation shows a high internal consistency, as well as a high level of equivalence. Furthermore, criterion-related validity and construct validity have shown satisfying results.
Increasing costs within health care require an efficient use of time and staff in order to appropriately satisfy patients’ needs. The application of valid and reliable instruments enables nurses to determine patients’ care needs. However, to ensure acceptance in nursing practice, assessment instruments must not only be reliable and valid, but also practical and useful. One such instrument for rehabilitation is the Care Dependency Scale for rehabilitation. The scale has been used in rehabilitation, but so far it has not been evaluated from the nurses’ perspective. Therefore, this study aims to determine how nurses evaluate the clinical utility of the Care Dependency Scale for rehabilitation. In this context the application and testing of a staff view assessment instrument was deemed necessary, and this constitutes the second aim of the study. Nurses from several Austrian rehabilitation units were asked to complete the staff view assessment instrument to evaluate the Care Dependency Scale for rehabilitation. Ethical approval was obtained. Results indicate that the staff view assessment instrument enables evaluation of the clinical utility of the Care Dependency Scale for rehabilitation. Most nurses agree that the Care Dependency Scale for rehabilitation is a clinically useful instrument, improves communication and cooperation within the nursing team and is easy and quick to use/analyse/ interpret. It may therefore be recommended for application in daily nursing practice.