Assessment Tools and Veterans

¶ … Kracker et al. (2011). The first purpose of the study is to measure the level of satisfaction associated with the current (at the time of writing) activities provided veterans at a VA CLC. The second purpose is to identify past/present "activity preferences" in order to provide guidance for future activities development for veterans at the VA CLC. Activities included a range of exercises -- from eating to praying. The methodology used in this study was that of the survey method.

The sample was selected from the veterans population from five of the six large VA CLC in the suburban northeastern U.S. Veterans at the VA CLC were there for "short-term rehabilitation, short-term transition, or LTC services" and the demographics of the veterans population were 19 males for every 1 female. Total number of veterans at the CLC was 200. The survey was sent to every veteran. The racial demographics of respondents were 2/3rds Caucasian, 1/5th African-American and 2% Asian. 10% or respondents did not list or describe their race/ethnicity.

Respondents ranged in age ffrom 40 to 89 years, with the majority (30%) falling in the 60 to 69-year range. The survey gathered information on age/racial background, asked 12 questions related to discerning the satisfaction levels associated with the activities provided there, included a checklist of all 72 activities there at the time of writing as well as a checklist of activities provided in the past.

The survey used assessment tools taken from the 2002 Ohio Department of Aging Resident Satisfaction Survey, the Nursing Facility Family Satisfaction Questionnaire (NF-FSQ) and the CAHPS Nursing Home Survey: Long-Stay Resident Instruments. Survey Development The survey was developed by using Ohio Department of Aging Resident Satisfaction Survey, which provided 45 items that ranging from activities to direct care with answer choices being yes or no. A 4-point Likert scale (from Yes-always to No-never) followed the yes/no choice. Cronbach's alpha shows reliability for these questions ranging from 0.68 to 0.90.

The NF-FSQ is a tool for assessing family perceptions of care from a one to ten analog scale. It used 23 items from 8 different domains, and Cronbach's alpha for its questions ranged from 0.76 to 0.86. The CAHPS survey used 45 questions. From the Ohio survey came Kracker et al.'s (2011) satisfaction items 1, 2, 4, 7, 8 and 11. Item 9 used survey questions from the Ohio survey but in a way so that they were combined into one. Items 9 and 10 also elaborated on the concept of activities, such as.