Premium
Design of a Questionnaire to Measure Trust in an Emergency Department
Author(s) -
Kelly John J.,
Njuki Fred,
Lane Peter L.,
McKinley Robert K.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
academic emergency medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.221
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1553-2712
pISSN - 1069-6563
DOI - 10.1111/j.1553-2712.2005.tb00853.x
Subject(s) - varimax rotation , cronbach's alpha , likert scale , medicine , emergency department , reliability (semiconductor) , family medicine , scale (ratio) , content validity , test (biology) , internal consistency , face validity , phone , psychometrics , clinical psychology , psychology , nursing , developmental psychology , power (physics) , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics , biology , linguistics , philosophy
Objective: To develop a valid and reliable questionnaire for measuring patient trust in an emergency department (ED) that can be administered by phone, direct interview, or mail. Methods: This was a survey conducted at a Level 1 urban trauma center with an annual census of 52,000 visits. Literature review, focus group discussions, and direct patient interviews identified potential items for pilot surveys. Fifteen ED nurses, residents, and faculty scored the items on a 1–10 scale, rephrasing or removing ambiguous items to ensure face and content validity. A telephone survey with responses recorded on a five‐point Likert scale was conducted. Reliability and internal consistency of items were tested using SPSS software. Factor analyses were performed using principal components analysis and Varimax rotation with Eigen values set at 1.0. Results: A total of 383 patients seen in the ED were surveyed. Using two pilot surveys, 18 of 42 potential items were extracted among five factors identified as important to the development of trust. Internal consistency for the final 18 items was calculated, and a Cronbach's α of 0.88 was obtained for all items. Test‐retest reliability was calculated by telephoning 38 patients twice, two weeks apart, and correlation coefficients of >0.748 were obtained for all items. Conclusions: This questionnaire can be used for telephone or direct interview to survey patients' trust in EDs.