Table 1 The study questionnaire
Measure/ item | Description |
|---|---|
The CARE Measure. | The 10 items of the CARE Measure are rated on a 5-item response scale from 1 = poor to 5 = excellent. The overall score is the sum of the ten items with 10 being the lowest possible score and 50 the highest. Up to two not applicable (N/A) responses or missing values are allowed and these are replaced by the average item score [22]. |
Importance of the CARE Measure question | The importance of the CARE Measure items to their consultation was assessed on a 4 point rating scale (from 1 = not important to 4 = very important). |
Overall satisfaction question | Overall satisfaction was rated on a Likert scale (from 1 = completely satisfied to 7 = completely dissatisfied). This item was included to obtain evidence of convergent validity. Perceived empathy is known to be an important factor for patient satisfaction. Therefore, the prediction would be that it correlates positively with CARE measure scores [5, 6, 42]. |
The Patient Enablement Instrument (PEI) | The 6 items contained in the PEI were included to assess divergent validity. Enablement is related to satisfaction and CARE measure scores, but it is a different concept. The predication is that PEI would correlate less strongly with the CARE measure than patient satisfaction [43]. |
Relational continuity questions | How well the patients knows the nurse was rated on a Likert scale (from 1 = don’t know at all to 5 = know very well). Whether or not previously seen by nurse, consultation length, satisfaction with consultation length was rated from 1 = very poor to 6 = excellent. |
Socio-demographic questions | These included self-perceived overall health, age, gender, living arrangements, employment status and language spoken at home. |
Questions on waiting time, and satisfaction with waiting time | These two additional questions (from 1 = very poor to 6 = excellent) were included after discussion with the nurses. As a ‘drop in’ service and waiting times can vary considerably it was important to be able to assess the impact of waiting time on the CARE Measure scores. |