Development and Testing of an Instrument to Measure Professionalism in Nursing

Background and Purpose: Evaluation of professionalism in nursing has proven challenging as no objective measurement tool exists. The purpose of this study was to develop and test the Professionalism in Nursing Scale (PNS) for reliability and validity, which will facilitate evaluation of the constructs of professionalism in nursing. Participants were senior nursing students and registered nurses with at least a baccalaureate degree and a minimum of 3 years of experience working either in academia at an accredited university or in a practice setting in a Magnet hospital. Methods: Methodological research was used to design an instrument that measures professionalism in nursing. Phase 1 included item development, scaling, and evaluation of the content validity index, using 10 content experts. Phase 2 included pilot and field testing using participants meeting the inclusion criteria. Questionnaires were sent electronically to evaluate the relevance of each attribute of professionalism using a Likert scale. Phase 3 was scale evaluation, including reliability and validity of the PNS. Results: Final results of exploratory factor analysis supported a 33-item five-factor model. The factors were named Ethics and Interprofessional Collaboration, Excellence, Professional Engagement, Caring, and Self-Awareness. The overall reliability rate of the PNS was 0.97. Findings demonstrated the reliability and validity of the PNS for measuring professionalism in academic and clinician nurses and nursing students. Conclusions: Measuring professionalism in nursing can assist in driving improvement of patient care, accountability, and team collaboration. A discussion of the PNS within the context of academia and clinical practice, along with implications for research, practice, education, and policy, will be presented.