Evaluating psychometric properties of three mentoring scales among nurses and midwives in hospital settings: A...

Scales used to evaluate nurses' perspectives of mentoring programmes are mainly designed in developed countries, making them unsuitable for nurses and midwives working in resource-poor developing countries.

To explore the psychometric properties of the perceived cost of mentoring (PCM) scale, negative mentoring experiences (NME) scale and relational mentoring index (RMI) for adaptation in hospital settings in Uganda.

A cross-sectional study design was used. In total, 303 hospital nurses/midwives in Ugandan participated in the study to evaluate the psychometric properties of the three mentoring scales.

Revisions based on word choice were made in adapting the scales to the Ugandan context. The PCM showed three factors (risk to reputation, mentoring effort and nepotism) and had an intra-class correlation (ICC) of 0.609 (95% CI, 0.324-0.793) and Cronbach's alpha of 0.705. The NME scale had two factors (lack of mentor expertise and mismatch between the dyad) consistent with the original scale with an ICC of 0.568 (95% CI, 0.271-0.767) and Cronbach's alpha of 0.841. The RMI showed two factors (individual influence and relational quality) with an ICC of 0.664 (95% CI, 0.410-0.824) and Cronbach's alpha of 0.933.

The initial psychometric assessment indicates satisfactory validity and reliability of the scales for implementation among nurses and midwives within Ugandan hospital contexts. Subsequent research is warranted to validate the factor structures of the scales on a different sample.

In using mentoring programmes to develop the hospital workforce, nurse and midwifery policymakers need to use culturally adapted and validated PCM, NME, and RMI scales to evaluate the quality of these mentoring programmes to maximise the benefits while avoiding unintended consequences.