Parent experiences of paediatric care (PEPC) questionnaire:: reliability and validity following a national survey

Aim: To describe the development and evaluation of a parent completed questionnaire to measure parent experiences of inpatient paediatric care, the parent experiences of paediatric care (PEPC). Methods: Literature review, parent interviews, pre-testing and a national survey of 6144 parents of children who were inpatients at one of the 20 paediatric departments within Norway in 2005. Results: Three thousand three hundred and eight (53.8%) parents responded to the questionnaire. Low levels of missing data suggest that the PEPC is acceptable. The questionnaire includes six scales as supported by the results of factor analysis: nursing services (seven items), doctor services (five items), organisation (four items), information - examinations and tests (two items), information - discharge (three items) and hospital facilities (four items). Cronbach's alpha and test-retest correlations ranged from 0.7 to 0.9. Comparisons of scale scores with several variables including overall satisfaction with care and pain control, supported validity. Conclusion: The PEPC questionnaire includes important aspects of hospital care from the perspective of the parent. It has good evidence for internal consistency, test-retest reliability and validity and is recommended in surveys of parent experiences of paediatric inpatient care.