Abstract
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to construct and test the reliability and validity of the communication skill assessment scale in cancer palliative care for healthcare staff. METHODS: The concept of communication skills was defined by the literature review. The palliative care communication skill assessment scale was developed through literature analysis, an open questionnaire survey, and expert correspondence. A total of 485 healthcare staff, including doctors and nurses, who worked in the medical oncology department of a Grade-A oncology hospital in Zhejiang Province were selected to screen the items of the scale and test their reliability and validity. RESULTS: There were 39 items in the final version of the palliative care communication skill assessment scale for healthcare staff. Through exploratory factor analysis, six common factors were extracted, and the cumulative variance contribution rate was 80.47%. Item content validity index (CVI) ranged from 0.78 to 1.00, and the overall CVI of the scale was 0.91. The internal correlation test showed that the correlation coefficient of each dimension of the scale with a total score was 0.59-0.76 (p < 0.05), and the inter-dimension correlation coefficient was 0.46-0.51 (p < 0.05). The Kronbach coefficient of the aggregate table was 0.928. The retest reliability was 0.89. The broken half reliability was 0.84. CONCLUSION: The palliative care communication skill assessment scale we constructed has good reliability and validity, and it can be used to evaluate the communication skills of healthcare staff during palliative care.