Development and initial validation of the Parental PELICAN Questionnaire (PaPEQu) - an instrument to assess parental experiences and needs during their child's end-of-life care

• Published in: Journal of advanced nursing Vol. 71; no. 12; pp. 3006 - 3017
• Main Authors: Zimmermann, Karin, Cignacco, Eva, Eskola, Katri, Engberg, Sandra, Ramelet, Anne-Sylvie, Von der Weid, Nicolas, Bergstraesser, Eva
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-12-2015; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Child; Child, Preschool; Children & youth; Female; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; instrument development; Male; Middle Aged; Needs Assessment; Nursing; paediatric end-of-life care; Palliative care; PaPEQu; parental perspectives; Parents & parenting; Parents - psychology; Pediatric Nursing - standards; Psychometrics - instrumentation; Questionnaires; Reproducibility of Results; Retrospective Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Switzerland; Terminal Care - psychology; Terminal Care - standards; Validity; Switzerland; instrument development; PaPEQu; nursing; parental perspectives; paediatric end-of-life care
• ISSN: 0309-2402; 1365-2648
• DOI: 10.1111/jan.12741

Aim
To develop and test the Parental PELICAN Questionnaire, an instrument to retrospectively assess parental experiences and needs during their child's end‐of‐life care.
Background
To offer appropriate care for dying children, healthcare professionals need to understand the illness experience from the family perspective. A questionnaire specific to the end‐of‐life experiences and needs of parents losing a child is needed to evaluate the perceived quality of paediatric end‐of‐life care.
Design
This is an instrument development study applying mixed methods based on recommendations for questionnaire design and validation.
Method
The Parental PELICAN Questionnaire was developed in four phases between August 2012–March 2014: phase 1: item generation; phase 2: validity testing; phase 3: translation; phase 4: pilot testing. Psychometric properties were assessed after applying the Parental PELICAN Questionnaire in a sample of 224 bereaved parents in April 2014. Validity testing covered the evidence based on tests of content, internal structure and relations to other variables.
Results
The Parental PELICAN Questionnaire consists of approximately 90 items in four slightly different versions accounting for particularities of the four diagnostic groups. The questionnaire's items were structured according to six quality domains described in the literature. Evidence of initial validity and reliability could be demonstrated with the involvement of healthcare professionals and bereaved parents.
Conclusion
The Parental PELICAN Questionnaire holds promise as a measure to assess parental experiences and needs and is applicable to a broad range of paediatric specialties and settings. Future validation is needed to evaluate its suitability in different cultures.