Concordance in the Assessment of Effectiveness of Palliative Care between Patients and Palliative Care Nurses in Malaysia: A Study with the Palliative Care Outcome Scale

CONTEXT: The Palliative Care Outcome Scale (POS) is an easy-to-use assessment tool to evaluate the effectiveness of palliative care. There is no published literature on the use of POS as an assessment tool in Malaysia.

AIM: To define the concordance in the assessment of quality of life between patients with advanced cancers and their palliative care nurses using a Malay version of the POS.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This study was conducted in the palliative care unit of the Hospital Tuanku Ja'afar Seremban, Malaysia, from February 2014 to June 2014.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We adapted and validated the English version of the 3-day recall POS into Malay and used it to define the concordance in the assessment of quality of life between patients and palliative care nurses. Forty patients with advanced stage cancers and forty palliative care nurses completed the Malay POS questionnaire.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The kappa statistical test was used to assess the agreement between patients and their palliative care nurses.

RESULTS: Slight to fair concordance was found in all items, except for one item (family anxiety) where there was no agreement.

CONCLUSIONS: The Malay version of the POS was well accepted and reliable as an assessment tool for evaluation of the effectiveness of palliative care in Malaysia. Slight to fair concordance was shown between the patients and their palliative care nurses, suggesting the needs for more training of the nurses.