Parent experiences of paediatric care (PEPC) questionnaire: reliability and validity following a national survey

Aim: To describe the development and evaluation of a parent completed questionnaire to measure parent experiences of inpatient paediatric care, the parent experiences of paediatric care (PEPC). Methods: Literature review, parent interviews, pre‐testing and a national survey of 6144 parents of children who were inpatients at one of the 20 paediatric departments within Norway in 2005. Results: Three thousand three hundred and eight (53.8%) parents responded to the questionnaire. Low levels of missing data suggest that the PEPC is acceptable. The questionnaire includes six scales as supported by the results of factor analysis: nursing services (seven items), doctor services (five items), organisation (four items), information – examinations and tests (two items), information – discharge (three items) and hospital facilities (four items). Cronbach's alpha and test‐retest correlations ranged from 0.7 to 0.9. Comparisons of scale scores with several variables including overall satisfaction with care and pain control, supported validity. Conclusion: The PEPC questionnaire includes important aspects of hospital care from the perspective of the parent. It has good evidence for internal consistency, test‐retest reliability and validity and is recommended in surveys of parent experiences of paediatric inpatient care.