Turkish validity and reliability of children's environmental health knowledge and skills questionnaires for nursing students.

BACKGROUND

A constantly changing and polluted environment can negatively affect children's health. Nursing education should enable the training of future nurses who are fully equipped to protect and improve children's health. In this respect, it is necessary to evaluate the knowledge and skills of nurse candidates. To examine the psychometric properties of the "Children's Environmental Health Knowledge (ChEHK-Q) and Skills (ChEHS-Q) Questionnaire" among Turkish-speaking nursing students.

METHODS

This study employed a methodological method. An online survey was administered to 300 students in a nursing department in western Türkiye in 2021. Expert opinions were obtained for content and language validity. The validity of the scales was analysed via "Rasch measurement theory", and whether the necessary preconditions for the analysis (the item function difference, local independence, reliability, and unidimensionality) were met was checked. Then, the item difficulty, person ability, and response threshold value ranking data were obtained. SPSS 25.0 software, LISREL Vrs. 8.80 program and Winsteps 3.92.1 Version program were used.

RESULTS

The content validity indices of both scales were above 0.80. Only item 12 of the ChEHS-Q was removed because it did not provide cultural appropriateness. Both scales met the Rasch measurement theory assumption and had model fit. The ChEHK-Q infit values ranged from 0.13 to 1.07, and the outfit values ranged from 0.88 to 1.17. The ChEHS-Q infit values ranged from 0.82 to 1.19, and the outfit values ranged from 0.86 to 1.19.

CONCLUSIONS

Both questionnaires were found to be valid and reliable instruments in the Turkish language. Scales can provide ideas for shaping the nursing education curriculum in Türkiye. In this way, by determining which subjects are deficient, education programs can be arranged to eliminate these deficiencies. Nurses' awareness of environmental health is also important in improving public health. Graduating nurses can inform families by identifying environmental risks and contribute to the creation of healthy living conditions.In addition, it can be used in clinical practice (public health nursing, etc.) and national and international research (randomized controlled trials evaluating planned educational activities).

CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER

Not applicable.