The Professional Nurse Self-Assessment Scale: Psychometric testing in Norwegian long term and home care contexts

BMC Nursing

Lisbeth Fagerström¹  Kirsti Skovdahl²  Sigrid Wangensteen³  Elisabeth Finnbakk⁴ 

[1] Åbo Akademi University, Vasa Campus, Vasa 65101, Finland;Faculty of Health Sciences, Buskerud and Vestfold University College, Drammen 3007, Norway;Faculty of Health, Care and Nursing, Gjövik University College, Gjövik 2802, Norway;Lovisenberg Diaconal University College, Lovisenberggt. 15 b, Oslo 0456, Norway

关键词: Self-assessment;    Questionnaires;    Psychometrics;    Professional home nursing;    Long term care;    Factor analysis;    Clinical competence;    Advanced practice nursing;   

Others  :  1232998
DOI  :  10.1186/s12912-015-0109-3

 received in 2015-02-17, accepted in 2015-11-02,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

Nurses’ clinical competence is vital to ensure safe and high quality care, and the continuous assessment of nurses’ clinical competence is of major concern. A validated instrument for the self-assessment of nurses’ clinical competence at different educational levels across specialties and countries is lacking. The aim of this study was to test the reliability and construct validity of the new Professional Nurse Self-Assessment Scale (ProffNurse SAS) questionnaire in long term and home care contexts in Norway. The questionnaire is based on the Nordic Advanced Practice Nursing model, in which the nurse-patient relationship is central.

Methods

The study has a cross-sectional survey design. A purposive sample of 357 registered nurses who worked in long term and home care contexts in two geographical regions encompassing eight municipalities and three counties was included. The respondents completed the 74-item ProffNurse SAS questionnaire and demographic background data was collected. Data collection was conducted in two phases: first region autumn 2011 and second region spring 2012.

Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) were used to test the psychometric properties of the questionnaire and included the following steps: assessment of the factorality of the data, factor extraction by Principal Component Analysis (PCA), oblimin (oblique) factor rotation, and interpretation. Cronbach’s alpha was used to estimate the internal consistency.

Results

The PCA revealed a six-component structure, reducing the number of items in the questionnaire from 74 to 51. Based on the content of the highest-loading items, the six components were named: Direct Clinical Practice, Professional Development, Ethical Decision-Making, Clinical Leadership, Cooperation and Consultation, and Critical Thinking. The Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from 0.940 (highest; Direct Clinical Practice) to 0.737 (lowest; Critical Thinking), leading to the estimation that the ProffNurse SAS is reliable.

Conclusions

The six components support the study’s theoretical framework. The ProffNurse SAS showed acceptable reliability and construct validity and may therefore be a promising instrument for the assessment of practicing nurses’ clinical competence. However, we recommend further psychometric testing in other countries and contexts and the inclusion of larger samples of nurses at various levels of education, particularly master’s level APNs.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Finnbakk et al.

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