Instruments to measure cancer management knowledge of rural health care providers

Background. Instruments to measure cancer management knowledge of rural phy sicians, nurses, and pharmacists were needed to evaluate the effect of an e ducational intervention. Since such instruments did not exist, the authors designed and validated a new instrument for each discipline. Methods. The d esign and validation process for these instruments are described. Results. These three instruments were shown to be practical and to have high content and construct validity. Content validation demonstrated that all items wer e rated as essential or useful by 90% or more of the respondents. Construct validation show highly significant differences in mean scores among severa l levels of learners and practitioners as expected. Conclusions. These inst ruments may be useful to other investigators for measuring cancer managemen t knowledge of rural physicians, nurses, and pharmacists.