Purpose: To evaluate caregivers' experience of oncology services for ambulatory patients and to develop a short instrument (FAMCARE-6) suitable for computerised administration in the clinical setting.
Methods: A sample of 234 caregivers recruited from 388 ambulatory oncology patients completed a computerised version of the 20-item family satisfaction with advanced cancer care (FAMCARE) instrument, which was originally developed for use in palliative care settings.
Results: Caregivers reported generally high satisfaction with all aspects of ambulatory oncology services: overall score; mean, 3.96 (SD, 0.67); information giving, 3.88 (0.78); physical patient care, 4.00 (0.71); availability of care, 3.89 (0.77); and psychosocial care, 4.05 (0.72), from a possible score of 5. Factor analyses identified a single factor structure; the items were reduced to six (FAMCARE-6), which yielded a scale with adequate psychometric properties (completion rates over 90% for every item, correlation of 0.7 or above with the factor identified in the individual item factor analysis, and internal reliability of α = 0.85). The overall mean score was 3.91 (SD, 0.73) for the FAMCARE-6.
Conclusions: FAMCARE-6 can be used to assess caregiver satisfaction with ambulatory oncology services and may be suitable to be included as part of a computerised screening system for the psychological care of oncology patients.