Systematic review of measurement properties of instruments assessing nurses’ attitudes towards the importance of involving families in their clinical practice

Abstract

Aims To identify, appraise and describe the characteristics and measurement properties of instruments assessing nurses’ attitudes towards the importance of involving families in their clinical practice. Design Psychometric systematic review. Data Sources The PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases were searched from their time of inception to June 2018. Review Methods Two reviewers independently assessed the eligibility of studies, extracted data, and appraised the methodological quality of the studies using the COSMIN checklist. Results A total of 19 studies representing 5 instruments were included. Two instruments—a revised version of the Families’ Importance in Nursing Care: Nurses’ Attitudes scale (FINC‐NA‐R) and the Family Nurse Practice Scale (FNPS)—obtained higher scores for most of their properties. The instruments used in the remaining eight studies require further assessment of their psychometric properties. Conclusion This psychometric review offers a synthesis of the quality of the available instruments and gives a better understanding of nursing theory‐based tools. The FNPS and FINC‐NA‐R instruments seem to be the most suitable measures of nurses’ attitudes towards the importance of involving families in their clinical practice. Impact The growing emphasis on improving nurse–family relationships and the quality of care provided makes it necessary to have valid and reliable instruments for assessing nurses’ attitudes towards the importance of involving families in their clinical practice. This paper provides evidence that will help clinicians and researchers make decisions about the most suitable instrument based on a critical appraisal and comparison of the measurement properties according to a rigorous methodology.

Translation and Psychometric Validation of the German Version of the Family Nursing Practice Scale (FNPS)

“…Conceptual review of the 10 items suggests that all items measure a sense of proficiency or competence in family nursing practice. This is consistent with the initial intent to develop a measure that assesses nurses' perception of their family nursing practice based on a competency framework and the essential components of relational Family Systems Nursing (Alfaro Díaz et al, 2019;Simpson & Tarrant, 2006). We therefore propose to rename the one-factor German language version as Family Nursing Practice Proficiency Scale (in German: Fragebogen zur selbst-wahrgenommenen Befähigung in systemischer Familienpflege).…”

“…Over a decade ago, Simpson and Tarrant (2006) developed the Family Nursing Practice Scale (FNPS) to have a reliable measure that appraises nurses' sense of competence in family nursing practice, and to assess changes following family nursing educational and training interventions. The FNPS is based on a Family Systems Nursing approach (Shajani & Snell, 2019;Wright & Bell, 2009;Wright & Leahey, 2013) and has been developed to reflect the constructs of (a) nurses' attitudes in working with families; (b) their critical appraisal of Family Systems Nursing practice (i.e., knowledge, skill, confidence, and satisfaction); and (c) their perception of nurse-family relationship (care planning, enabling family participation, reciprocity, and bias; Alfaro Díaz et al, 2019;Simpson & Tarrant, 2006). While developed in English, the FNPS was simultaneously translated into Chinese (Cantonese) and used in both languages for the initial validation study (Simpson & Tarrant, 2006).…”

“…While developed in English, the FNPS was simultaneously translated into Chinese (Cantonese) and used in both languages for the initial validation study (Simpson & Tarrant, 2006). The psychometric evaluation revealed a two-factor solution, namely practice appraisal and nurse-family reciprocity, showed excellent construct validity, and satisfactory internal consistency and test-retest reliability (Alfaro Díaz et al, 2019;Simpson & Tarrant, 2006).…”

“…While the FNPS has been crossculturally adapted to Chinese, to our knowledge, it has not been translated and psychometrically tested in another language. Moreover, its structural validity and internal consistency have not been tested since its development and warrant affirmation (Alfaro Díaz et al, 2019). We translated the instrument into German for a family systems care knowledge translation study and used it to measure changes following a family nursing educational and training intervention (Naef, Kläusler-Troxler, et al, 2020;Naef, Meier Kaeppeli, et al, 2020) and for assessing nurses' appraisal of their family nursing practice skills in an acute-critical care setting.…”

Psychometric evaluation of the German version of the instrument: Families’ Importance in Nursing Care – Nurses’ Attitudes (FINC‐NA)

“…As a consequence, there has been a surging interest in studying nurses' attitudes towards family involvement as an important factor in enabling or limiting supportive, engaging nurse-family relationship (34). One instrument, the Families' Importance in Nursing Care -Nurses' Attitudes (FINC-NA) has been widely used to do so (35,36).…”