The Iranian version of critical care family needs inventory in the cardiac care unit: A validation study

Introduction: Life-threatening illness and later hospitalization in an intensive care unit in the hospital often occur unexpectedly without any warning and no time for the patients and their families to prepare and get ready. The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the of the critical care family needs inventory (CCFNI) in the cardiac care units (CCU).Methods: This study was conducted as a cross-sectional research. The main sample comprised 450 family members of hospitalized patients in the CCUs of the hospitals in Semnan, Iran. Participants were randomly selected to evaluate the instrument in terms of construct and convergent validity. The internal consistency of the translated instrument was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Results: In line with the original instrument, five different components were extracted from the CCFNI-P, which accounted for more than 53.5% of the total variance. The correlation between the total score for the instrument and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory criterion was positive and significant (r = 0.66, p = 0.03). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the entire instrument was 0.91 and more than 0.70 for all dimensions.Conclusions: This study confirmed the validity of the CCFNI-P in terms of face validity, construct, and convergent and it showed an acceptable internal consistency. The CCFNI-P is suitable for investigating the needs of Iranians.

Keywords:

Family , needs assessment , cardiac care units , questionnaire , psychometrics.