Development of a Scale to Identify Spiritual Care Needs of Oncology Patients

Aim: The research was conducted to develop and analyze the validity and reliability of spiritual care need scale identifying the spiritual care needs of oncology patients living in Turkey. Method: The research was conducted at Oncology Training and Research Hospital with 290 patients who applied to the hospital for chemotherapy at the Day Treatment Centers. Content and construct validity tests were applied to evaluate the validity of the scale, and internal validity and time invariance tests are applied to evaluate the reliability of the test. Expert opinion was solicited to evaluate the content validity of the scale. Exploratory factor analysis was applied to test the construct validity Results: As a result of factor analysis, 4 sub-dimensions consisting of 24 items were obtained. Sub-dimensions were named as `faith and spiritual practices", "to be peaceful and secure until the end of life", "love and support of relatives" and "informing about health". Cronbach's alpha value for the spiritual care needs scale was 0.867. According to test-retest results, there is no time-dependent change in the spiritual care needs scale and its sub-dimensions. Conclusion: The analysis sets spiritual care need scale as a valid and reliable measurement tool.