Nursing professional values: validation of a scale in a Spanish context

To validate culturally the "Nursing Professional Values Scale: NPVS-R" for use in Spain.

We used the forward and backward translation method with complementary qualitative methodology. We first formed discussion groups to detect cultural differences, then set up a multidisciplinary group to ascertain the equivalence or discrepancies between the English and Spanish versions and to decide on the final pre-test version. This was used in the pilot test given to 10 second-year nursing students of the School of Nursing of Vitoria, Spain.

The majority of the questions were classified as equivalents (23 of 26). Some questions were modified by the discussion group. Following the backward translation and evaluation by the multidisciplinary group, two questions needed small changes and four needed significant changes. The differences were resolved by decentralization.

The resulting Spanish version of the NPVS-R, is culturally and semantically equivalent to the original English version and is appropriate for measuring the perception of nursing professional values in nursing professionals and students in Spain. To verify reliability and validity of the scale, the final version after the pilot test has been passed to 960 nursing diploma students all over Spain.