The pediatric provider communication skills assessment scale

Problem

Building rapport and trust between healthcare professional and patient/parents would improve satisfaction of patient/parents. The purpose of this study was to develop “The Pediatric Provider Communication Skills Assessment Scale” in this study.

Methods

A trial form, with linguistic and psychometric validation and consisting of 44 statements, was administered to a sample of 325 individuals. Data were collected between January 20 and October 22, 2021. The validity of the scale was concluded after examining its construct validity and internal validity. “Exploratory factor analysis” was used for determining construct validity, and “comparison of lower-upper groups” for internal validity. “Cronbach's α reliability coefficient” and “split half test consistency coefficient” were calculated for testing the reliability of the scale.

Findings

The Pediatric Provider Communication Skills Assessment Scale that we developed consists of one dimension and 20 items, and the variance it can explain was calculated as 62.3%. The Cronbach α reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated as 0.90, indicating high reliability.

Conclusions

According to the findings, “The Pediatric Provider Communication Skills Assessment Scale” is a scale with features that can measure in a valid and reliable way, with high variance and a low number of items. The study aims to develop the “The Pediatric Provider Communication Skills Assessment Scale,” and present it to the literature as a validated and reliable new objective measurement tool. This study will enable us to understand more about the complex communication processes involved in pediatric care and how these may influence care delivery.