Paper
Monday, November 5, 2007

400
This presentation is part of : Innovations in Nursing Research
TEMPtEd: Development and Psychometric Properties of a Tool to Evaluate Materials Used in Patient Education
Laura Clayton, PhD, RN, Department of Nursing Education, Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV, USA
Learning Objective #1: state the five categories of evaluation criteria necessary to determine the suitability of printed patient educational material.
Learning Objective #2: identify the psychometric properties of a newly developed instrument, “Tool to Evaluate Material Used in Patient Education” (TEMPtEd).

The purpose of this oral presentation is to describe the reliability and validity of a newly developed instrument, “Tool to Evaluate Materials Used in Patient Education” (TEMPtEd). The instrument was developed using the classical work of Waltz, Strickland, and Lenz (2005). The instrument contains 5 subscales (content, motivating principles, literacy, layout and typography, and graphics) with 21 criteria for evaluation using a 4-point rating scale. Ninety-one nurse educators from throughout the United States used the TEMPtEd Beta Version # 4 to evaluate an educational brochure on how to follow a low sodium diet. Data analysis demonstrated that the TEMPtEd is a promising instrument for the evaluation of patient educational material. The internal consistency of the overall instrument (.675 or .825 - .836 when collapsed from four to three rating options) and a moderate positive relationship (r (24) = .408, p < .05) between the test-retest was found. Significant weak to moderate correlations were found between the TEMPtEd and Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM), a previously developed instrument designed to measure the suitability of patient educational material, on the overall scale (p < .001) and four of the five subscales (motivating principles, literacy, layout and typography, and graphics at p < .01). Exploratory factor analysis revealed a six-factor solution that closely resembled the TEMPtEd. Additionally, study participants indicated that they preferred the TEMPtEd for the evaluation of patient educational materials (61%) as opposed to the SAM. The TEMPtEd was completed in less than 30 minutes by study participants (56%). Ideally, future studies of the TEMPtEd should be conducted to support the reliability and validity of this instrument. However, it is difficult to recruit participants willing to participate in all phases of the methodological study.