ArticleBMC palliative care2025
Validating the self-competence in death work scale for end-of-life care volunteers.
Article in BMC palliative care, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Factors associated with psychological distress among end-of-life care volunteers: a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative evidence.BMC palliative care · 2026Pooled it
- Death Literacy and Death Competence in Undergraduate Clinical and Allied Health Education: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There is an increasing demand for end-of-life care (EoLC) volunteers in Hong Kong's aging population. However, there is no validated measure that assesses volunteers' self-competence in coping with death. This is essential to optimize their services, and ensure their psychological well-being. This study aimed to validate the existing Self-Competence in Death Work Scale (SC-DWS) for EoLC volunteers. This scale has been tested previously on health professionals providing end-of-life care, and was adapted for this study with words that fitted the volunteer context.A self-administered survey collected demographic information, personal experiences, the 16-item SC-DWS, 15-item Templer Death Anxiety Scale, and the 8-item Spiritual Wellbeing Scale to examine the internal consistency, concurrent validity, and discriminative validity of this scale among EoLC volunteers. The study sample consisted of all applicants who registered for the EoLC volunteer training programme between 2019 and 2021. Applicants first underwent a systematic screening and selection procedure. They completed an online registration form which included risk assessment, followed by structured individual interviews focusing on applicants' motivation and mental preparedness for their role. The content validity of the SC-DWS was determined using data from the 341 volunteers who were screened prior to training. Construct validity was tested using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), which suggested that two-factors (subscales) offered the best combination of variables (Emotional and Existential Subscales). The new subscales and the component items differed slightly from those identified in health professional samples. Concurrent validity was demonstrated by strong correlations between the SC-DWS, and the Death Anxiety, and Spiritual Wellbeing scales. Discriminant validity was supported by strong relationships between the new subscales and participants' personal experiences. The SC-DWS was shown not only to be reliable and valid for EoLC volunteers, but it also highlighted the unique emotional challenges they faced.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.