Moral competence questionnaire for public health nurses in Japan: scale development and psychometric validation

To develop a valid and reliable self-assessment questionnaire that can be easily used by public health nurses in Japan to measure their moral competence.

A self-administered questionnaire that included the preliminary Moral Competence Questionnaire for Public Health Nurses and demographics was distributed to public health nurses who worked at local governments in Japan.

Exploratory factor analysis for the Moral Competence Questionnaire for Public Health Nurses from 3493 responses (31.9%) revealed 15 items loading on three factors: (1i) judgment based on the values of community members; (ii) strong will to face difficult situations; and (iii) cooperating with relevant people/organizations. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that this model has a reasonable fit to the data. Cronbach's alphas ranged 0.85-0.91.

The construct validity and internal consistency reliability of the Moral Competence Questionnaire for Public Health Nurses were supported. This questionnaire reflected the characteristics of Japan's public health nursing practice and it may be used to assess current moral practice and need for continuing education. However, this questionnaire needs additional internal validity testing and possible item development. Additional research is needed to refine this scale and increase the possibility of generalizability.