In the realm of healthcare, effective decision-making is paramount, especially when it involves collaborative efforts among professionals and patient satisfaction. The Care Decisions Tool, known as the Collaboration and Satisfaction About Care Decisions (CSACD), stands out as a valuable instrument to assess these crucial aspects within healthcare settings. This article delves into the CSACD tool, exploring its purpose, variations, and significance in improving patient care interactions.
The CSACD tool is fundamentally designed to evaluate the quality of interaction during care decisions and the level of satisfaction experienced throughout this process. Utilizing a 7-point scale across its 9 items, this care decisions tool provides a structured approach to gauge both collaboration and satisfaction, which are recognized as two distinct yet interconnected subscales within the instrument. Researchers and healthcare practitioners employ the CSACD to gain insights into team dynamics and patient experiences related to decision-making in diverse healthcare environments.
Several adaptations of the CSACD care decisions tool have been developed to cater to specific research needs and healthcare contexts. One notable modification expands the tool to 26 items, while retaining the 7-point scale and the core focus on collaboration and satisfaction subscales. This expanded version, detailed by Dieleman and colleagues in 2004, has been utilized in settings such as hospitals in Canada, involving professions like medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. The tool’s application in this study involved a sample of 22 professionals across four disciplines, demonstrating its utility in interprofessional healthcare teams. Psychometric analysis of this modified care decisions tool has shown strong internal consistency, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.89 at Time 1, indicating its reliability in measuring the intended constructs.
Another significant adaptation, the Modified Collaboration and Satisfaction About Care Decisions (CSACD-N), features a 7-item structure with a 7-point scale. This version, described by Dechairo-Marino and collaborators in 2001, specifically focuses on assessing collaboration in patient care decisions and satisfaction with the decision-making process within nursing contexts. Used in a university setting in the United States, the CSACD-N care decisions tool measures six attributes of collaboration alongside a global measure of collaboration amount. In a study involving 122 nurses, this tool demonstrated a high internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.94, further validating its applicability in nursing practice.
The original 9-item CSACD care decisions tool, as developed by Baggs in 1994, also provides robust psychometric properties. Studies have indicated a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.93 for 6 critical-attribute collaboration items, and significant correlations between collaboration and satisfaction measures. Factor analysis further supports the tool’s construct validity. This foundational version has been applied in hospital settings in the United States, involving medicine and nursing professionals, with sample sizes of 58 staff from two professions, highlighting its relevance across different healthcare disciplines.
In conclusion, the Collaboration and Satisfaction About Care Decisions (CSACD) tool, in its various forms, serves as a crucial care decisions tool for evaluating and enhancing the quality of collaborative decision-making processes and satisfaction levels in healthcare. Its rigorous development and psychometric validation across multiple studies and healthcare settings underscore its value for researchers and practitioners aiming to improve team-based care and patient-centered outcomes. By utilizing the CSACD, healthcare organizations can gain valuable insights into their decision-making dynamics and implement targeted strategies to foster more effective collaboration and greater satisfaction among both professionals and patients.
| Reference | Dieleman, S. L., Farris, K. B., Feeny, D., Johnson, J. A., Tsuyuki, R. T., and Brilliant, S. (2004). Primary health care teams: Team members’ perceptions of the collaborative process. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 18(1), 75-78. PLEASE NOTE: Only those with paid subscriptions to the Informa Healthcare database may access the full text of this copyright-protected article. Contact your institutional library or the publisher for details. |
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| Tool Description | This version of the Modified Collaboration and Satisfaction About Care Decisions tool is a 26 item tool on a 7 point scale used to assess quality of interaction in making care decisions and satisfaction with the decision making process in the health setting. It has two subscales: collaboration and satisfaction (Dieleman et al., 1994). |
| Country | Canada |
| Setting | Hospitals |
| Professions | Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy |
| Sample | 22 professionals in 4 disciplines |
| Subscale(s) & Psychometrics | Nurse-‐physician or allied health professional collaboration associated with making specific patient care decisions |
| Contact | karen-‐[email protected] |
| Reference | Dechairo-Marino, A. E., Jordan-Marsh, M., Traiger, G., and Saulo, M. (2001). Nurse/physician collaboration: Action research and the lessons learned. The Journal of Nursing Administration, 31(5), 223-232. PLEASE NOTE: Only those with paid subscriptions to the Wolters Kluwer Health database may access the full text of this copyright-protected article. Contact your institutional library or the publisher for details. |
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| Tool Description | The Modified Collaboration and Satisfaction About Care Decisions (CSACD-N) tool has 7 items with a 7-point scale and is used to assess collaboration in making specific patient care decisions and satisfaction with the decision making. The tool measures 6 attributes of collaboration and 1 global measure of amount of collaboration (Dechairo et al., 2001) |
| Country | United States |
| Setting | University |
| Professions | Nursing |
| Sample | 122 nurses |
| Subscale(s) & Psychometrics | 6 attributes of collaboration and 1 global measure of amount of collaboration (No Other Information Provided) |
| Contact | [email protected] |
| Reference | Baggs, J. G. (1994). Development of an instrument to measure collaboration and satisfaction about care decisions. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 20(1), 176-182. PLEASE NOTE: Only those with paid subscriptions to the Wiley Online Library may access the full text of this copyright-protected article. Contact your institutional library or the publisher for details. |
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| Tool Description | The Modified Collaboration and Satisfaction About Care Decisions tool is a 9 item tool on a 7 point scale used to assess quality of interaction in making care decisions and satisfaction with the decision making process in the health setting. It has two subscales: collaboration and satisfaction (Baggs, 1994). |
| Country | United States |
| Setting | Hospitals |
| Professions | Phase 1 and 2: Medicine and Nursing |
| Sample | 58 staff from 2 professions |
| Subscale(s) & Psychometrics | Nurse-‐physician or allied health professional collaboration associated with making specific patient care decisions |
| Contact | Judith Gedney Baggs, PhD, RN, FAAN Elizabeth N. Gray Distinguished Professor Special Assistant to the Dean for Research and Scholarship Oregon Health & Science University, School of Nursing, SN-4S 3455 SW US Veterans Hospital Road Portland, OR 97239 [email protected] |
