Abstract
BACKGROUND: Death and dying care is an area with less attention in nursing. This even is evidenced as more challenging in some populations such as neonates. Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurses should be aware of the quality of care they provide for dying neonates and their families to find the areas which need attention. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric features of the Quality of Dying and Death (QODD) questionnaire in NICU nurses in Tehran, the capital city of Iran. METHODS: This methodological study was conducted in 2017. For this purpose, using census method, 130 NICU nurses working in selected hospitals participated. After the backward-forward translation, based on the method proposed by the International Test Commission, the psychometric properties of the Persian QODD were examined through the assessment of the face, content and construct validity, internal consistency, and stability. RESULTS: Final Persian QODD's content and face validity were accepted through a qualitative method. In the confirmatory factor analysis, the original version of QODD was not confirmed. Subsequently, an exploratory factor analysis was carried out in which phrases were included in three dimensions (symptom control, preparation for death of neonate, and professional attention) that explained 75% of the variance. Cronbach's alpha values ranged from 0.82 to 0.88 for these three dimensions. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was ICC = 0.94 between two tests performed with a 2-week interval on twenty eligible nurses. CONCLUSIONS: The Persian version of QODD has acceptable psychometric properties in nurses working with the neonatal population and can be used to investigate the NICU nurses' opinion on the QODD provided in NICU patients.