Development of a measure of resident satisfaction with the nursing home

A satisfaction instrument specifically designed for use with nursing home r esidents, the Satisfaction with the Nursing Home Instrument (SNHI), was dev eloped and tested with a sample of 110 nursing home residents from three pr oprietary facilities in Minnesota. As hypothesized, significant relationshi ps were found between SNHI scores and measures of affect (negatively associ ated with depression and positively associated with morale), providing supp ort for the construct validity of the scale. The lack of a significant rela tionship between SNHI scores and both age and mental status confirmed the p redicted divergent validity of the instrument. The alpha coefficient for th e 29-item scale was 0.81. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.