TITLE:
Development of a Scale to Screen Parents with Uncertainty Regarding Their Child with Acute Illness
AUTHORS:
Shingo Ueki, Kazuyo Komai, Kazutomo Ohashi
KEYWORDS:
Acute Childhood Illness, Factor Analysis, Parent, Scale Development, Pediatric Nursing, Uncertainty
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.7 No.11,
November
20,
2017
ABSTRACT: Parents experience uncertainty when their children
become sick. The study aimed to develop a Parents’ Uncertainty regarding their
Child with Acute Illness Scale (PUCAS) and to clarify differences in PUCAS
scores between groups that were divided according to participants’ demographic
characteristics. PUCAS was developed based on interviews, literature review,
and a pilot study. We obtained valid responses from 235 parents with children
hospitalized due to an acute childhood illness. Exploratory factor analysis
narrowed the number of items to 25, divided into the following 5 subscales:
unpredictability of the course of the illness, ambiguity about the severity of
the illness, ambiguous appropriateness of management, discrepancy of judgement
with health care professionals, and lack of information about the causes of the
illness. There was satisfactory construct validity and criterion-related validity.
Cronbach’s alpha was 0.92 for the overall scale. Participants who used
ambulances, those who were not given any reliable diagnosis for their children,
and fathers scored significantly higher on the PUCAS. PUCAS has high validity
and reliability in measuring uncertainty of parents who have children with
acute childhood illness and could be a useful screening tool for parents with
high uncertainty in a clinical setting.