Reliability and validity of the Nurse Practitioners' Roles and Competencies Scale

Area of Science:

• Nursing Science
• Healthcare Professional Assessment
• Advanced Practice Nursing

Background:

• International attention on advanced nursing roles.
• Variability in nurse practitioner roles globally.
• Lack of a validated tool for assessing nurse practitioner competencies in Asia.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability and construct validity of the Nurse Practitioners' Roles and Competencies Scale.
• To provide a measurement tool for nurse practitioner roles in Asian contexts.

Main Methods:

• Secondary analysis of data from 563 completed questionnaires across three studies.
• Exploratory factor analysis with principal component analysis and varimax rotation.
• Internal consistency assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.

Main Results:

• The scale identified six factors: professionalism, direct care, clinical research, practical guidance, medical assistance, and leadership/reform.
• These factors explained 67.5% of the variance in nurse practitioner competencies.
• Excellent internal consistency was found (overall scale α=0.98; subscales α=0.83–0.97).

Conclusions:

• The Nurse Practitioners' Roles and Competencies Scale exhibits good reliability and construct validity.
• High internal consistency suggests potential item redundancy, recommending item response theory for optimization.
• The scale is suitable for assessing nurse practitioner roles in Taiwan and can inform development in other Asian nations.