Development and Validation of the Interprofessional Collaboration Practice Competency Scale (IPCPCS) for Clinical...

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Interprofessional collaborative practice is crucial for safe, high-quality nursing care.
• A validated scale for assessing interprofessional collaboration competencies in clinical nurses in Taiwan was lacking.
• Developing such a scale is essential for improving healthcare systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an Interprofessional Collaboration Practice Competency Scale (IPCPCS) for clinical nurses in Taiwan.
• To establish the reliability and construct validity of the newly developed scale.
• To provide a tool for evaluating interprofessional education.

Main Methods:

• A psychometric study utilizing a cross-sectional survey design.
• Convenience sampling recruited nurses from seven hospitals within a medical foundation.
• Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, principal-axis factoring (PAF), Pearson correlation, reliability analysis, and one-way ANOVA.

Main Results:

• Principal-axis factoring identified three key factors explaining 77.76% of the variance: collaborative leadership/conflict resolution, communication/team functioning, and role clarification/client-centered care.
• The scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.970–0.978) and high Pearson correlation coefficients (0.814–0.883).
• Significant differences in IPCPCS scores were observed based on age, education, experience, nursing ladder position, and interprofessional education participation.

Conclusions:

• The developed Interprofessional Collaboration Practice Competency Scale (IPCPCS) possesses good reliability and construct validity.
• The three identified factors are robust measures of interprofessional collaboration competencies.
• The IPCPCS is a suitable evaluation tool for interprofessional education programs for clinical nurses in Taiwan.