Background: Regret after one of the many decisions and interventions that health care professionals make every day can have an impact on their own health and quality of life, and on their patient care practices.
Objectives: To validate a new care-related regret intensity scale (RIS) for health care professionals.
Research design: Retrospective cross-sectional cohort study with a 1-month follow-up (test-retest) in a French-speaking University Hospital.
Sample: A total of 469 nurses and physicians responded to the survey, and 175 answered the retest.
Measures: RIS, self-report questions on the context of the regret-inducing event, its consequences for the patient, involvement of the health care professionals, and changes in patient care practices after the event. We measured the impact of regret intensity on health care professionals with the satisfaction with life scale, the SF-36 first question (self-reported health), and a question on self-esteem.
Results: On the basis of factor analysis and item response analysis, the initial 19-item scale was shortened to 10 items. The resulting scale (RIS-10) was unidimensional and had high internal consistency (α=0.87) and acceptable test-retest reliability (0.70). Higher regret intensity was associated with (a) more consequences for the patient; (b) lower life satisfaction and poorer self-reported health in health care professionals; and (c) changes in patient care practices. Nurses reported analyzing the event and apologizing, whereas physicians reported talking preferentially to colleagues, rather than to their supervisor, about changing practices.
Conclusions: The RIS is a valid and reliable measure of care-related regret intensity for hospital-based physicians and nurses.