A validity and reliability of the patient learning needs scale

Objective: Evaluation of the validity and reliability of ?The Patient Learning Needs Scale? in Turkey. Method: This is a methodological study. Written consent was obtained from the owner of the scale, the institution and patients with also approval of the concerned ethics committee. The study sample was composed of 250 patients who underwent surgeries at four main surgery clinics of a public hospital. The Patient Learning Needs Scale developed by Bubela et al (1990) was translated into Turkish. The scale is consisted of 50 items and 7 subscales which are assessed by a Likert type 1-5 rating scale. The internal consistency coefficient of the original scale is 0.95 and the total item score correlations (r) range between 0.69-0.85. Results: The scale was translated into English by 4 specialists and re-translated into Turkish by 4 specialists for the language validity. For the content validity, opinions of 13 experts were obtained and following an analysis, the scores of the experts were found to be consistent with each other (KW=0.100, p=0.07). The difference between the mean scores of the subgroup and the superior group was detected to be significant (t=26.610, p=0.00). The internal consistency reliability coefficient was 0.93 for the total scale and for the subscales it was as follows: medications, 0.82; activities of living, 0.83; community and follow-up, 0.57; feelings related to condition, 0.61; treatment and complications, 0.79; enhancing quality of life, 0.80; skin care, 0.65. As a result of the item analysis, the item-total score correlation coefficients were found to be statistically significant ranging between 0.20-0.66 (p=0.000). Conclusion and suggestions: The Patient Learning Needs Scale was concluded to be valid and reliable utilized in Turkey for the investigation of the surgery patients? learning needs at discharge. The employment and re-evaluation of the scale in determining the learning needs of specific patient groups in surgical and medical clinics will increase the capacity of the scale and generalize its utilization.