Development and Validation of An Elderly Care Capacity Needs Questionnaire in Elderly Care Institutions with the Model of Combination of Medical and Health Care

Background: China's elderly population is growing rapidly. As the primary provider of geriatric care services, the expertise and care competencies of nursing staff directly affect the quality of services provided by elderly care institutions. To develop a geriatric care capacity needs questionnaire to provide an assessment tool for the implementation of geriatric care quality improvement and staff capacity building programs in elderly care institutions. Methods Based on the literature review, a questionnaire item pool was established. The initial questionnaire was formed by interviewing senior nursing staff and a pilot survey. The formal questionnaire was formed by testing the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. Results The Elderly Care Capacity Needs Questionnaire (ECCNQ) was composed of 12 dimensions. The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of the total questionnaire was 0.860. The Spearman-Brown coefficient was 0.832, Guttman split-half coefficient was 0.83. The correlation coefficient between each dimension and the total questionnaire was 0.472–0.737. Conclusions The reliability and validity of the ECCNQ are acceptable, with good stability and effectiveness, which can be used as an evaluation tool for elderly care capacity needs.