Validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the readiness for hospital discharge scale/short form.

AIM: The aim of this study is to test the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the readiness for hospital discharge scale/short form.

BACKGROUND: Assessment of readiness for discharge from the patient's perspective is becoming increasingly important for patient safety, satisfaction and various patient outcomes such as readmission, health service utilization and mortality. The readiness for hospital discharge scale/short form allows health care providers to determine patients' discharge readiness.

METHODS: Participants were 1,579 inpatients from internal medicine departments. The readiness for hospital discharge scale/short form was translated into Turkish via back-translation. We analyzed its reliability and validity via item analyses, an expert panel (content validity) and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (construct validity).

RESULTS: The Cronbach's alpha of the whole scale was .74 and those for the subscales ranged from .79 to .93. The Spearman-Brown reliability coefficient was .92. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed good fit indices (χ2 /df = 2.6; RMSEA = .03; CFI = 1; GFI and AGFI = .99). The mean total score was 7.27 ± 1.85, while the subscale means ranged from 6.62 ± 3.41 to 7.69 ± 2.24.

CONCLUSION: The Turkish version of the readiness for hospital discharge scale/short form is a valid and reliable tool for assessing discharge readiness. The subscales with low means suggest opportunities for improvement.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: If readiness for hospital discharge scale/short form is valid and reliable, patients who are unready for discharge can be determined with this scale. Thus, nurse managers can determine what kind of measures should be taken for patients who are not ready for discharge, can control nursing practices related to these patients and can provide cooperation between the nurses and other health professionals.