Validation of the needs assessment for advanced lung cancer patients (NA-ALCP)

Objective: The Needs Assessment for Advanced Cancer Patients (NA-ACP) is a 132-item self-report questionnaire designed to assess the seven needs domains of patients with advanced, incurable cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the short derivative form of that questionnaire with advanced lung cancer patients.

Methods: Item factor loadings, item test–retest data and response distributions were used to retain or reject items from the original NA-ACP scale. This resulted in 38 items being maintained, preserving the original subscales. The response scale was simplified following feedback from patients. 108 people with advanced lung cancer completed the shortened NA-ALCP along with measures of psychological distress (HADS, DT) and quality of life (EORTC QLQ-C30). A-priori predictions were made for divergent and convergent validity.

Results: Internal consistency coefficients were satisfactory for six of seven subscales, range 0.71–0.95. Correlations between NA-ALCP and HADS, DT and EORTC-QLQ-C30 provided support for 11 of the 22 divergent (r = 0.13–0.27) and convergent predictions (r = 0.45–0.71).

Conclusions: Subscales of the NA-ALCP demonstrated internal reliability consistent with the original scale. Results provided supporting evidence for divergent and convergent validity. This study indicates that the NA-ALCP is psychometrically robust, easily understood and one-quarter the length of the original version

Student reflections in a first year public health and health promotion unit

While reflective practice has been used extensively in nursing and teaching education over many years, the introduction of reflective practice into other disciplines is more recent. This paper provides an overview of the use of reflective practice as an assessment task in a first year, first trimester, undergraduate health promotion and public health unit. Reflective practice is included in this unit as a way for students to deal with challenges that arise during learning. This study used a coding scheme to determine the level of reflection of student journals, as well as a qualitative approach of thematic analysis to investigate themes within the student’s reflective journals. Findings of this study suggest a low level of student reflection, however; thematic analysis results in rich data that describe student aspirations for future careers.