The Spanish journal of psychology
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Self-care is a cornerstone issue for those who deal with stressful events, as it is the case of palliative care professionals. It has been related to awareness, coping with death and quality of life, among others, but no measurement instruments have been used in palliative care professionals. This research presents and validates a brief new measure with clinical and psychometric good properties, called Professional Self-Care Scale (PSCS). ⋯ Evidence regarding validity was consistent with previous literature. When levels of self-care were examined, women showed higher levels of inner and social self-care (F(3, 371) = 3.19, p = .02, η2 = .03, as also did psychologists when compared to doctors and nurses (F(9, 1074) = 2.00, p = .04, η2 = .02. The PSCS has shown adequate psychometric properties, and thus it could be used as diagnostic instrument when studying professionals' health.