Turkish validity and reliability of the neonatal palliative care attitude scale

Aim: The aim of this study is to test the Turkish validity and reliability of the Neonatal Palliative Care Attitude Scale. Materials and Methods: This methodological study was conducted in the neonatal intensive care clinics of Erzurum Atatürk University Research Hospital, Regional Training and Research Hospital, Nenehatun Maternity Hospital and Private Buhara Hospital between 10 December 2014 and 04 July 2017. The population consisted of the nurses working in the specified clinics and the whole population was tried to be reached without selection of sample group (N=145). The scale, developed by Kain et al., in 2009 has 26 questions on attitude. In its validity and reliability analysis, language, content, construct validity and reliability analyses were used. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 18.0 and Lisrel 8.50 packaged software. Results: It was found that the content validity index of the scale items was between 0.8-1.0, the KMO value was 0.758, and the Barlett's test result was χ²=415.127, p=0.000. According to the principle components analysis, it was found that the scale was three dimensional in line with its original form. It was found that the factor loadings of the scale items were above 0.40 and the explained variance was 55.51%. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the subscales of the scale was 0.692 for the subscale of organization, 0.710 for the subscale of resources, and 0.680 for the subscale of clinic. Conclusion: It was determined that the Neonatal Palliative Care Attitude Scale had a similar structure with the original scale, its validity and reliability was high, and it was a sufficient assessment instrument in determining the attitudes of the nurses towards neonatal palliative care. Key Words: Attitude, neonatal, nurse, palliative care, reliability, validity.