Towards a new clinical tool for needs assessment in the palliative care of cancer patients: the PNPC instrument

This study describes a new clinical tool for needs assessment in palliative care: the Problems and Needs in Palliative Care questionnaire (PNPC). It was developed to support the provision of care tailored to the specific demands of patients, which only can be provided when their needs are clearly id...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of pain and symptom management 2004-10, Vol.28 (4), p.329-341
Main Authors: Osse, Bart H.P., Vernooij, Myrra J.F.J., Schadé, Egbert, Grol, Richard P.T.M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Biological and medical sciences
Comorbidity
Female
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Needs Assessment
Neoplasms - epidemiology
Neoplasms - therapy
Netherlands - epidemiology
Pain - epidemiology
Pain Management
palliative care
Palliative Care - methods
Patient Satisfaction - statistics & numerical data
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
psychometrics
quality of healthcare
Quality of Life
questionnaires
Sex Distribution
Social Class
Surveys and Questionnaires
Terminal Care - statistics & numerical data
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Summary:This study describes a new clinical tool for needs assessment in palliative care: the Problems and Needs in Palliative Care questionnaire (PNPC). It was developed to support the provision of care tailored to the specific demands of patients, which only can be provided when their needs are clearly identified. To test validity and reliability, 64 patients with metastatic cancer living at home completed the PNPC. Of 140 initial items, 2 were deleted because of low response. No important topics were missing. Dimensions were proposed to organize the problems and needs in a logical and practical array for use in individual patients, and to enable statistical analysis of patient-groups. Reliability analysis supported the proposed dimensions, with Cronbach's alpha coefficient >0.70 for dimensions with ≥5 items, and alpha >0.65 for the 3- and 4-item dimensions. However, the dimensions ‘physical symptoms’ and ‘social issues’ lacked coherency with some low item-total correlations. The PNPC demonstrated convergent validity with the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and COOP-WONCA quality-of-life measures. These data are a first step in validating the PNPC, although the ‘social issues’ dimension needs reconsideration. Further studies are needed to evaluate clinical use.
ISSN:0885-3924
1873-6513
DOI:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2004.01.010