Adaptation and validation of the clinical supervision self-assessment tool among registered nurses.

BACKGROUND

Clinical supervision of pre-registration nursing students has become an integral role of the registered nurse. The Clinical Supervision Self-assessment Tool relating to knowledge (CSAT-Knowledge) and the individual's skills (CSAT-Skills) of clinical supervision and comprising of 30 items each originally is widely used for nurses in Australia. However, the psychometric properties of this tool have not been previously reported.

OBJECTIVE

To adapt the Clinical Supervision Self-Assessment Tool for nurses and to investigate the psychometric properties of the modified tool to measure registered nurses' knowledge and skills regarding supervising pre-registration nursing students.

DESIGN

Instrument adaptation and psychometric testing.

PARTICIPANTS/SETTINGS: A convenience sample of 229 registered nurses in a tertiary teaching hospital in Australia.

METHOD

A two-phase prospective study was conducted. Phase 1 involved the modification of the Clinical supervision Self-Assessment Tool, content validity and pilot testing of the modified version. Phase 2 included the psychometric testing of the modified Clinical Supervision Self-Assessment Tool (mCSAT-Knowledge; mCSAT-Skills).

RESULTS

The mCSAT-Knowledge and mCSAT-Skills comprised of 30 items each. The content validity of the mCSAT was considered satisfactory based on the feedback from the expert panel. Results of the exploratory factor analysis supported a three-factor structure identified as: evaluating clinical learning; facilitating clinical learning and problem solving. The internal consistency was high with a Cronbach's alpha values >0.90. The construct validity was supported as nurses who had undertaken clinical supervision training demonstrated significantly higher clinical supervision knowledge and skills scores than those had no training.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings provide empirical support for the modified Clinical Supervision Self-Assessment Tool as a valid measure of registered nurses' knowledge and skills regarding the clinical supervision of pre-registration nursing students. The tool requires further psychometric testing in different samples of nurses to enable validation in other settings.