Development and psychometric assessment of the Presence of Nursing Scale.

Nursing presence has been conceptualized in the literature. However, no instrument has been developed to measure it. The purpose of this study was to develop a scale to measure patients' perceptions of nursing presence and to examine its psychometric properties. A conceptual definition of nursing presence was operationalized and integrated into the 25-item Presence of Nursing Scale and tested on 330 hospitalized patients. Reliability and validity of the Presence of Nursing Scale were supported when tested with this sample. The study represents the first time the phenomenon of nursing presence has been measured.