Development and Validation of the Family and Community Nursing Advanced Practice Scale.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Science
• Advanced Practice Nursing
• Health Services Research

Background:

• The scope of advanced practice nursing roles in family and community settings requires clear definition and measurement.
• Existing instruments may not adequately capture the multifaceted nature of advanced practice in these diverse contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and psychometrically test a robust scale for assessing advanced practice in family and community nursing.
• To establish the construct validity, content validity, and internal consistency reliability of the new scale.

Main Methods:

• A methodological scale validation design using classical test theory.
• A three-phase study involving item generation, content validity index assessment, and a cross-sectional survey.
• Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were employed to establish construct validity.

Main Results:

• The developed Family and Community Nursing-Advanced Practice Scale demonstrated good construct validity, comprising 5 domains and 27 items.
• The scale exhibited excellent internal consistency reliability, with a high Cronbach's Alpha.
• Advanced practice nurses in family practice scored higher in clinical reasoning and health promotion compared to community nurses, who excelled in leading practice within wider teams.

Conclusions:

• The Family and Community Nursing-Advanced Practice Scale is a psychometrically sound instrument for evaluating advanced practice nursing.
• The scale identified five core domains of advanced practice: clinical care, leading practice, clinical reasoning, health promotion, and ethics.
• Advanced practice roles in family and community settings are largely similar, with minor differences in specific activities like research engagement.