Development of a measure of resident satisfaction with the nursing home

A satisfaction instrument specifically designed for use with nursing home residents, the Satisfaction with the Nursing Home Instrument (SNHI), was developed and tested with a sample of 110 nursing home residents from three proprietary facilities in Minnesota. As hypothesized, significant relationships were found between SNHI scores and measures of affect (negatively associated with depression and positively associated with morale), providing support for the construct validity of the scale. The lack of a significant relationship between SNHI scores and both age and mental status confirmed the predicted divergent validity of the instrument. The alpha coefficient for the 29-item scale was 0.81.