Assessing needs at the workplace: The development of a questionnaire for oncology professionals

Background and aim: The unmet needs of patients with cancer have been largely documented, but there is a lack of investigations into the needs of people who care for them. The current study aimed to fill this gap by developing a valid, reliable, easy-to-use questionnaire to assess the work-related needs of oncology professionals. Methods: The instrument was developed following several phases. Different groups of experts worked to identify the relevant needs and to formulate a provisional pool of items and the relative response mode. Content validity was tested, and some adjustments were made excluding some items and changing the response mode. The psychometric properties of the resulting questionnaire were analyzed by collecting data on a large sample of oncology professionals (N= 380; 80% females; age: M = 48.25, SD = 10.64 [range: 23-77], 35.8% physicians, 42.6% nurses, 8.4% socio-health workers, 7.9% medical diagnostic technicians, 5.3% psychologists). Results: During different steps of exploratory factor analyses, several items were removed, and four factors emerged. Exploratory graph analysis confirmed the presence of four clusters consisting of the same items. Construct and criterion validity were tested finding evidence of relationships with resilience, job satisfaction, psychological, relational, and general well-being, work-related burnout, depression, and stress. Incremental validity was also proved. Conclusion: The present study provides a reliable and valid questionnaire to evaluate the needs of oncology professionals. Surveying these needs could be done to prevent psycho-physical discomfort, promote well-being, and, eventually, improve the quality of healthcare service delivery.