Development of competence scale for senior clinical nurses

The aim of this study was to develop a new scale, the Competence Scale for Senior Clinical Nurses (CS-SCN), to assess and evaluate senior clinical nurses in hospitals, and to confirm the validity and reliability of the scale.

A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was undertaken at a hospital in Japan, using an anonymous self-administered questionnaire administered to clinical nurses (n=374). A useable sample of 218 was achieved, which was used in the analysis. Statistical analysis examined exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency, and construct validity.

A five factor solution with 22 items was extracted for nursing competence in senior clinical nurses, which was the interpretable questionnaire. In the confirmatory factor analysis, the indices of fitness supported these results. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.93 for the total score and varied between 0.63 and 0.90 in the five factors. Five factors emerged from an oblique factor analysis, with a cumulative variance of 66.7%: "role accomplishment"; "self-management"; "research"; "practice and coordination"; and "work implementation". The five factors had only a moderate correlation (0.30-0.77, P<0.001) with each other, which indicated construct validity.

The CS-SCN, a concise scale to measure and evaluate the competence of senior clinical nurses, was developed. Results suggest initial support for the new instrument as a measure of competence of senior clinical nurses, but it must be further refined, tested, and evaluated. Both the validity and reliability of the scale were verified. Future studies using the CS-SCN might lead to improvement in the competence of senior clinical nurses.