Development and validation of a self-assessment instrument for clinical educator competencies in nursing.

AIM

This study aimed to design and psychometrically evaluate a self-assessment instrument for clinical educator competencies in nursing.

BACKGROUND

The clinical educator competencies of nursing instructors had a significant impact on the quality of nursing education. However, no comprehensive instrument exists to measure this competence across multiple dimensions.

DESIGN

A methodological study was conducted in two stages: instrument development and psychometric evaluation.

METHODS

This study was conducted in two stages from January 2022 to December 2023. In the first stage, a questionnaire was developed based on six dimensions: education, management, communication skills, ethical, personal and psychological competence. Content validity was assessed using expert evaluations and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to confirm construct validity. Reliability was evaluated using test-retest and internal consistency methods.

RESULTS

The final instrument consisted of 58 items across six dimensions. EFA confirmed five factors with eigenvalues greater than one, explaining 67.96 % of the total variance. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was 0.825 and Bartlett's test was significant (p < 0.001). Reliability tests showed high internal consistency (α=0.967) and stability (correlation coefficient = 0.793).

CONCLUSIONS

The developed instrument demonstrated strong validity and reliability, making it suitable for assessing clinical educator competencies in nursing based on Waltz's four-step approach and the theory of planned behavior.