Development and Validation of Nurse's Character Scale for Care in Clinical Settings

Park, Jeong Hye

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a Nurse's Character Scale for Care in Clinical settings (NCS_C).
METHODS
The NCS_C was developed and validated as follows: Item generation, preliminary test of questionnaire, and tests of validity and reliability. One hundred and thirty six preliminary items were developed through a literature review and in-depth interviews by 10 nurse-experts and five patients. The content validity of the items was verified through an evaluation by five nurses and seven professors in the fields of Korean literature, pedagogy and nursing. Finally, 53 items were confirmed through item analysis, factor analysis and validity tests including convergent, discriminant and concurrent validities. Data were analyzed using factor analysis, Pearson correlation coefficients, and Cronbach's alpha.
RESULTS
Thirteen factors evolved from the factor analysis, which explained 63.1% of the total variance. The factors referred to the union of two dimensions: the professional dimension and the interpersonal dimension. The internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha, was .95, and reliability of the subscales ranged from .58 to .87.
CONCLUSION
The results of this study suggest that the NCS_C is a reliable and valid primary scale to measure nurses' or students' character level for better care in clinical settings.