Dimensions of Caring

Abstract

The increase in relationship-centered professional practice models has expanded the interest in the measurement of caring. Using a cross-sectional descriptive study of 557 adults from 5 acute care institutions, a factor analysis and reliability statistics were used to revise the Caring Assessment Tool. Eight independent factors (mutual problem solving, attentive reassurance, human respect, encouraging manner, appreciation of unique meanings, healing environment, affiliation needs, and basic human needs) explained 62.6% of the variance in caring. The findings provide insight into patients' assessment of caring in nursing and offer a baseline evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Caring Assessment Tool.

A psychometric analysis of the Caring Assessment Tool version V

“…Prior research has examined the factor structure of various versions of the CAT using EFA (Duffy et al, 2014(Duffy et al, , 2007. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the factor struc- behaviours of nurses are assessed in the caring relationships they have with their patients (Duffy et al, 2014).…”

“…The CAT was originally developed by Duffy in 1990 as a 100-item survey to assess patients' perceptions of nurse caring behaviours (Duffy, 1990). The CAT has been iteratively revised (Duffy et al, 2014;Duffy, Hoskins, & Seifert, 2007) and is currently (CAT-V) a unidimensional 27-item survey. The CAT is supported by the Quality Caring Model© (Duffy & Hoskins, 2003) which combines multiple theories from multiple disciplines to help explore the nurse's relationship with the patient and the contribution that nursing attitudes and actions have on patient outcomes (Kim, 2016).…”

“…The CAT is completed by patients using either a paper-and-pencil approach (Duffy & Brewer, 2011) or via electronic survey (Duffy, Kooken, Wolverton, & Weaver, 2012). Iterative versions of the CAT have had different numbers of items (100, 36 and 27) and different factor structures (between 8 and 1), and each version has reported appropriate reliability and validity (Duffy et al, 2014(Duffy et al, , 2007O'Nan, Jenkins, Morgan, Adams, & Davis, 2014). However, all of the studies using the CAT have been undertaken in different population groups in the USA.…”

“…Previous versions of the CAT have had a range of different subscales. The CAT-IV had eight subscales (mutual problem-solving; attentive reassurance; human respect; encouraging manner; appreciation of unique meanings; healing environment; affiliation needs; and basic human needs)(Duffy et al, 2007). The CAT-V was reported as evaluating a unidimensional construct which was described as an expression of the nurse-patient relationship where the attitudes, skills and…”

Being respected by nurses: Measuring older patients’ perceptions

“…For example, the Caring Behaviours Inventory CBI-24, developed by Wolf et al (2003), based on Jean Watson's Transpersonal Caring Theory (Watson, 1985), has one dimension (out of four) which measures respectful deference to others. However, respect for patients is important enough to be studied as a single element of care (Aboumatar et al, 2015;Duffy, Hoskins, & Seifert, 2007).…”