The development and validation of a scale measuring effective clinical teaching behaviors

The purpose of this methodological study was to describe the development and validation of an instrument that would measure effective clinical teaching behaviors of nursing faculty. Two hundred eighty-one nursing students evaluated their clinical instructors using a 43-item Likert scale entitled "Effective Teaching Clinical Behaviors" (ETCB), and data were used to test the validity and reliability of the instrument. Content validity of the scale is adequately documented, and factor analysis suggests that the tool is measuring one major factor, "effective clinical teaching behaviors." Internal consistency and test-retest reliability coefficients achieved satisfactory standards for reliability. Alternate scales reliability coefficient was also satisfactory. The ETCB fills a void in the instrumentation available for clinical instructors. Since students are the direct recipients of instruction, it seems imperative that a valid and reliable scale be available for them to evaluate their instruction.