Statistical Validation of Health Care Questionnaires for Nursing Researchers

Statistical validation is necessary when there is a need to show that a health care questionnaire is collecting rigorous data. Validation establishes whether an instrument is measuring what it is intended to measure (validity), and whether it is eliciting consistent responses (reliability). Because successful validation relies on following certain guidelines during question formulation and requires a deep understanding of the subject matter in order to appropriately interpret components, nurses should be directly involved in the validation process. By providing an easy-to-follow computerized approach to statistical validation and describing its implications for hypothesis testing, this paper makes the process of validation more accessible to nursing researchers who may not have extensive statistical training.