Early integration of palliative care: translation, cross‐cultural adaptation and content validity of the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool in a Swedish healthcare context

Abstract

Background Timely identification of patients with palliative care needs is a prerequisite for being able to carry out effective and equal palliative care. The Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool (SPICT) identifies patients likely to benefit from a palliative approach. Aim The main objective was to describe the translation, cross‐cultural adaptation and content validation process of the SPICT‐SE. In this process, the prefinal SPICT‐SE was tested in focus group interviews to explore how the tool was perceived and interpreted by healthcare professionals in a Swedish healthcare context. Methods In this qualitative descriptive study, the translation, cross‐cultural adaptation and content validation process of the SPICT‐SE was based on a recommended method for cross‐cultural adaptation of self‐report measures. The process included two independent forward translations, a synthesis, and one independent back‐translation. An expert committee consolidated all the versions and developed the prefinal version of the SPICT‐SE. The prefinal version of the SPICT‐SE was tested in four focus group interviews with physicians and nurses engaged in inpatient or outpatient care in south‐west Sweden. A thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews was performed. The SPICT‐SE was then revised to the final version. Results In the thematic analysis, four themes were constructed that together described how the SPICT‐SE was perceived and interpreted by healthcare professionals: The mindset is familiar and relevant; the tool needs to be adjusted in order to be clearer; the purpose and consequences of the tool are ambiguous; and the tool supports a palliative approach. Conclusion The SPICT‐SE has now been successfully translated, culturally adapted and content validated in a Swedish healthcare context.

Supportive and palliative care indicators tool (SPICT™) in a Danish healthcare context: translation, cross-cultural adaptation, and content validation

“…Furthermore, themes 1, 2, and 3 indicate that SPICT ™ -DK has the potential to be used as a linguistic framework for supportive and/or palliative care and a collaborative and pedagogical tool among different professional groups and health care settings. In line with a Swedish study [19], our findings indicate that SPICT ™ -DK has potential in terms of when to take a breakpoint conversation with the patient and the family about future treatment and care.…”

“…SPICT ™ can be used for all patients, in all contexts, and at any point in the disease trajectory [16,17]. At present, SPICT ™ has been translated into 10 languages [15], for example, German [18], Swedish [19] Italian [20], and Spanish [21], and has been shown to identify people with deteriorating health and those in need of palliative care [22]. For example, studies show that the tool can be useful as a support in clinical decision-making in hospitals to identify patients in need of palliative care [16] and can be used to identify older hospitalized patients at risk of dying within a year [23].…”

Organizational readiness to implement the Serious Illness Care Program in hospital settings in Sweden

“…The use of SPICT has also been shown to provide patients with a better quality of life and to involve family members [34]. SPICT has been translated into Swedish with a cross-cultural adaptation, and it has been shown to be well designed with all the indicators for palliative care [35]. Therefore, the SPICT instrument may be a better instrument for identifying patients with serious illnesses.…”

Palliative care needs-assessment and measurement tools used in patients with heart failure: a systematic mixed-studies review with narrative synthesis

“…In the general population, IPOS and SPICT have the best evidence of validity, reliability, and practicality [55,65,72,73,[78][79][80][81][82][83][84], followed by NECPAL and RADPAC [60,66], while no formal validation studies were found for GSF-PIG.…”