Development and Psychometry of An Instrument to Measure the Educational Needs of Health Care Providers in Prenatal Screening

Abstract

Background and purpose: Health care professionals play a major role in providing information about prenatal screening to pregnant mothers, but, there is no comprehensive instrument to assess their educational needs. The aim of this study was to develop an instrument to measure the educational needs of health care providers toward prenatal screening. Materials and methods: The study was conducted in two phases. At the first phase, in a deductive approach, relevant literature and the opinions of experts as long as pregnant mothers' views were used for the development of a pool of items. Then, face validity, content validity and reliability of the instrument were investigated for the psychometric properties of the instrument. Results: Data led to a questionnaire consisting of 35 items in four dimensions including: proper time, techniques, laws and rules, and follow up. The scale’s Content Validity Index (CVI) was 0.94 and the reliability was demonstrated by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.72 for the entire scale. Consistency of the instrument was established using test – retest reliability with an interval of two weeks (ICC = 0.98, P< 0.001). Conclusion: The results are estimates of the validity and reliability of the instrument. Normalization of the instrument in other cultures is recommended.

Keywords

• educational needs
• need assessment
• prenatal screening
• psychometry