"Both sides now" A scale for assessing health care providers' intercultural communication comfort regarding traditional and non traditional palliative care
Abstract Introduction Interacting with patients and families from cultures who hold differing views on health and illness involves increased feelings of strangeness and decreased feelings of familiarity. The purpose of this study was the development of the 'Intercultural Palliative Care Comfort' (IPCCC) scale and evaluation of its psychometric properties. Method The design of this component of the research is scale development. The IPCCC was administered via web survey to 598 clinical staff at one urban acute hospital in New Zealand. Results Exploratory factor analyses revealed two primary factors, which accounted for 62% of the variance: Traditional Palliative Care Topics (a 0.98) Non Traditional Palliative Care Topics (a 0.95) Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to triangulate these results. Construct validity was supported. Conclusions The IPCCC shows promise in identifying areas of concern particularly in assessing communication comfort in dealing with Non Traditional (religious and cultural) aspects of culturally safe and culturally competent care.