“Both sides now”—A scale for assessing health care providers’ intercultural communication comfort regarding traditional and non-traditional palliative care

IntroductionInteracting with patients and families from cultures who hold differing views on health and illness involves increased feelings of strangeness and decreased feelings of familiarity. The purpose of this study was the development of the ‘Intercultural Palliative Care Comfort’ (IPCCC) scale and evaluation of its psychometric properties.MethodThe design of this component of the research is scale development. The IPCCC was administered via web survey to 598 clinical staff at one urban acute hospital in New Zealand.ResultsExploratory factor analyses revealed two primary factors, which accounted for 62% of the variance: Traditional Palliative Care Topics (α = 0.98); Non-Traditional Palliative Care Topics (α = 0.95). Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to triangulate these results. Construct validity was supported.ConclusionsThe IPCCC shows promise in identifying areas of concern particularly in assessing communication comfort in dealing with Non-Traditional (religious and cultural) aspects of culturally safe and culturally competent care.