Development and psychometric testing of the psychological capital questionnaire for nurses

Psychological capital (PsyCap) is a positive internal resource for individuals, playing a crucial role in mental health. Evaluating nurses' psychological capital is important for understanding their mental well-being, as they face unique occupational stressors. However, existing PsyCap questionnaires are developed for various other professions such as enterprise employees, teachers, patients, teenagers, and civil servants, making them less suitable for the nursing profession. The main aim of this study is to develop and validate a Psychological Capital Questionnaire specifically tailored to the nursing occupation in Chinese clinical settings.

This is a multi-stage, cross-sectional study conducted between March 2022 and May 2023. Preliminary items of the scale were generated through a literature review, theoretical research, and the Delphi method. The final questionnaire was validated through two rounds of data collection. In the first stage, 236 nurses were selected using purposive sampling for item analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA)and reliability testing. In the second stage, data were collected from 494 nurses using convenience sampling to conduct confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

The final questionnaire contains 30 items, with six factors extracted by EFA, accounting for 77.59% of the total variance. The confirmatory factor analysis showed good model fit, with the following indices: χ²/df = 4.052, GFI = 0.836, CFI = 0.938, TLI = 0.926, NFI = 0.919, RMSEA = 0.079, RMR = 0.030. The reliability measures were high, with a Cronbach's α of 0.976, split-half coefficient of 0.976, and test-retest reliability of 0.941 and 0.963.

The Psychological Capital Questionnaire for Nurses exhibits strong psychometric properties, making it a valuable tool for assessing the psychological capital of nurses in Chinese clinical settings.