Table 4.
Final scale analysis (after omission of Items “whether ward was clean” and “ Whether patient died in the right place”)
| Overall Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.86 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Subscales and short description of items | Cronbachs’Alpha if item deleted per scale | Item Scale Correlation |
|
1 Support and time of doctors and nurses α = 0.85; 14.6% Variance explained | ||
| Nursing care - medicines and comfortable position | 0.82 | 0.68 |
| Nursing care - personal care needs | 0.82 | 0.68 |
| Confidence and trust with the doctors | 0.83 | 0.57 |
| Time of doctors to listen and discuss the patient’s condition | 0.82 | 0.69 |
| Whether HCT did all they could to relieve pain | 0.84 | 0.54 |
| Whether HCT did all they could to control respiratory tract secretions | 0.85 | 0.41 |
| Confidence and trust in nurses | 0.84 | 0.51 |
| Whether HCT did all they could to relieve restlessness | 0.83 | 0.56 |
| Time of nurses to listen and discuss the patients’ condition | 0.83 | 0.57 |
|
2 Spiritual and emotional support α = 0.86; 10.6% Variance explained | ||
| Whether HCT met overall religious spiritual needs of patient | 0.74 | 0.82 |
| Whether HCT met overall religious spiritual needs of next-of-kin | 0.75 | 0.80 |
| Emotional support to next-of-kin | 0.87 | .62 |
|
3 Information and decision-making α = 0.61; 8.5% Variance explained | ||
| Difficulty of explanations about the patient’s condition | 0.50 | 0.54 |
| Involvement in decision-making | 0.43 | 0.55 |
| Whether discussion giving fluids through a ‘drip’ would have been helpful | 0.62 | 0.28 |
| Whether discussion of giving fluids through a ‘drip’ took place | 0.62 | 0.34 |
|
4 Environment α = 0.81; 8.2% Variance explained | ||
| Whether the bed area had adequate privacy | 0.81 | 0.68 |
| Whether the bed area was comfortable | 0.81 | 0.68 |
|
5 Information about dying process α = 0.68; 7.6% Variance explained | ||
| Whether a discussion about what to expect during the dying process would have been helpful | 0.51 | 0.55 |
| Information about what to expect during the dying process of the patient | 0.56 | 0.52 |
| Information about the soon death of the patient | 0.66 | 0.44 |
|
6 Presence of symptoms α = 0.58; 6.5% Variance explained | ||
| Whether patient was restless | 0.51 | 0.30 |
| Whether patient had pain | 0.46 | 0.40 |
| Whether patient had retained respiratory tract secretions | 0.62 | 0.26 |
|
7 Support at actual time of death and afterwards α = 0.59; 5.7% Variance explained | ||
| Support at actual time of death | 0.43 | |
| Sensitivity of HCT after death | 0.43 | |
Values in bold were critical and have been analysed individually in order to decide on item in−/exclusion; HCT = Health Care Team