Development of the Readiness for Home-Based Palliative Care Scale (RHBPCS) for Primary Family Caregivers

Background: In Chinese or Eastern society, most end-of-life (EOL) patients still choose to die at home. However, primary family caregivers usually do not prepare themselves to face the death of patients. Therefore, a measurement of the readiness for home-based palliative care for primary family caregivers is needed. Methods: In this study, the readiness for home-based palliative care scale (RHBPCS) for primary family caregivers was developed to assess the readiness of primary family caregivers. This study recruited 103 participants from five branches of one municipal hospital system. The reliability and validity of the RHBPCS was evaluated using expert validity examination, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and item analysis. Results: The results showed that the RHBPCS had strong goodness-of-fit and good reliability and validity. Conclusions: In summary, the RHBPCS is suggested for assessing the readiness for home-based palliative care of primary family caregivers.