Psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale-Parent Form (Ped-RHDS).

BACKGROUND

An objective evaluation of parents' perceived readiness for the discharge of their child from hospital may aid in the prevention of readmission and rehospitalization. This study examined the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale-Parent Form (Ped-RHDS) for children in Turkey.

METHODS

The parents of 160 children planned for discharge from the pediatric surgery and pediatric departments were included. Cronbach's α, exploratory factor, confirmatory factor, item-total correlation, and criterion validity analyses of the Turkish Ped-RHDS were performed.

RESULTS

The Turkish Ped-RHDS has 26 items in 5 factors explaining 52.212% of the total scale variance. The scale had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.842. In exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, item factor loadings were higher than 0.30 and comparative fit and goodness of fit indices were 0.96 and 0.93, respectively. In criterion-based validity, total Ped-RHDS score weakly correlated with scores on the Post-Discharge Coping Difficulty Scale (r = -0.164; p = 0.039). Item-item total score correlations for the Turkish Ped-RHDS were between 0.329 and 0.532.

CONCLUSION

The Turkish Ped-RHDS is valid and reliable as a parent-reported instrument for the assessment of hospital discharge readiness in children and parents.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Healthcare professionals can use this assessment tool to measure parental and child discharge readiness before children are discharged from hospital. The Turkish Ped-RHDS should be integrated into discharge readiness assessment as standard practice in the discharge of pediatric patients.