An instrument to assess nurses' and care assistants' self-efficacy to provide a palliative approach to older people in residential aged care : a validation study

Objective: This study investigated the psychometric properties of the 'Palliative care self-efficacy scale', an instrument designed to assess clinicians' degree of confidence in engaging in patient and family interactions at the end-of-life. Design: The instrument was administered to 405 aged care professionals employed in nine aged care facilities. Exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency statistics were undertaken. Results: A two-factor solution of the 'Palliative care self-efficacy scale' was extracted with factor loadings above the 0.4 cutoff. Cronbach's alpha of the scale and subscales ranged from 0.87 to 0.92. The 'Palliative care self-efficacy scale' demonstrates good validity and reliability. Conclusions: The 'Palliative care self-efficacy scale' can be a useful tool in assessing and monitoring clinicians' perceived capacity to provide a palliative approach. Further evaluation in other samples and settings is required.