Developing an instrument to measure nursing students' attitudes towards nurses during clinical practice: A quantitative study.

AIM

This study was conducted to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool to determine nursing students' attitudes towards nurses during the clinical practice.

BACKGROUND

Nurses affect the clinical practice process of nursing students and play an important role in the latter gaining experience. Evaluation of students' attitudes towards nurses is a critical factor for the training of qualified nurses.

DESIGN

This study used a quantitative cross-sectional design.

METHODS

This study was conducted between February and March 2024 with 408 students studying in the nursing department of a university in Türkiye. The item pool of the scale was formed with 45 items through literature review and qualitative data analysis and presented to 21 experts. After the content validity, the draft scale consisting of 38 items was used as a data collection tool. Lawshe's Content Validity Ratio, Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin Coefficient, Bartlett's test, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Principal Component Analysis, Varimax Factor Rotation Method, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Cronbach's Alpha Internal Consistency Coefficient, Spearman Correlation Coefficient and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks tests were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

Exploratory factor analysis revealed 28 items and three sub-dimensions in the scale. Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient was 0.902 for the cooperation and understanding sub-dimension, 0.925 for the communication skills and guidance sub-dimension, 0.723 for the support for professional development sub-dimension and 0.946 for the total scale. According to the confirmatory factor analysis fit index results of the scale, RMSEA value was 0.054 and χ2/df value was 2.189. As a result of the analysis conducted to determine the test-retest reliability, it was determined that all items and factor scores showed significant relationships between the two applications (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The scale was found to be a valid and reliable measurement tool that can be used to determine nursing students' attitudes towards nurses during the clinical practice.