Individualized Care Scale-patient: A Spanish validation study.

BACKGROUND: I suggest this individualized care is a fundamental principle closely linked to nursing ethics and has important benefits for the patients, however, nurses do not always take into consideration the principles of individualized care. Moreover, there is no validated instrument to assess patients' views of individualized care in Spanish-speaking countries.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the validity and reliability of the Spanish version of the Individualized Care Scale-patient.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional study design was conducted. A questionnaire survey, including the Individualized Care Scale-patient, was used for data collection. Psychometric properties of reliability and validity were assessed. Fit indices of the overall model were computed. Participants and research context: Survey data were collected from a sample of 118 inpatients at a public hospital in Spain. Ethical considerations: Informed consent from participants and ethical approval was obtained from a regional Clinical Research Ethics Committee.

FINDINGS: Ordinal Cronbach's alphas were 0.966 for Individualized Care Scale-patient subscale A and 0.969 for Individualized Care Scale-patient subscale B. The polychoric correlation between each item and the subscale ranged between 0.653-0.874 and 0.604-0.916, respectively. The exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor solution. Personal life situation explained relatively large amounts of the variance. Goodness of fit index showed a good fit for the model.

DISCUSSION: This study confirms three factors underlining the individualized care concept, but some differences were found in the load of the factors, such as the relevance of "personal life situation" subscale, that need further research.

CONCLUSION: The Spanish version of the Individualized Care Scale-patient is reliable, valid, user-friendly, and suitable to be used in Spanish-speaking countries showing satisfactory properties. This instrument may help managers better understand and develop areas in which patients perceive lower individualized care received and the factors influencing it. Such key information will help ensure the right of the patient to be respected as an individual.