Instrument development of health providers' Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Hospice Care Scale in China

Objective To match the reform of hospice development in China, this study aimed to construct an indigenized health providers' Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Hospice Care (KAPHC) Scale in China with good validity and reliability. Methods We used three steps to develop the scale, establishing items-pool firstly based on literature review and expert consultation, followed by forming a draft-scale design through synthetically consideration, and finally modifying the draft by conducting a self-administrative survey in sampled institution and testing the reliability and validity by statistical analysis. Results The KAPHC Scale was comprised of 15 knowledge items, 24 attitude items and 22 practice items. In the part of knowledge, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.686, the average difficulty was 0.62 and average discrimination was 0.46. The attitude items were divided into four domains (KMO = 0.770), with Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.868. The practice items included confidence of practices and self-reported behaviors (KMO = 0.732), with Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.958. Conclusion The KAPHC Scale demonstrated good validity and reliability. As an effective tool, the scale may contribute to assessing health providers' KAP status of hospice care and exploring their future education needs in mainland China.