Preparedness of nurses for climate change: questionnaire development and preliminary validation

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Nursing Science
• Public Health

Background:

• Nurses are vital in addressing climate change impacts.
• Existing tools lack focus on future preparedness for climate action.
• A gap exists in measuring nurses' readiness for climate change interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an international instrument to measure nurses' self-perceived engagement and preparedness for climate change.
• To assess nurses' awareness and attitudes toward climate change.
• To provide a tool for informing climate action strategies targeting nurses.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional, multinational survey utilizing a self-administered questionnaire.
• Instrument development guided by the International Council of Nursing (ICN)'s Position Statement.
• Content validity assessed by expert panel (S-CVI/I-CVI), reliability by Cronbach's alpha, and structural validity by exploratory factor analysis.

Main Results:

• The final instrument demonstrated high content validity (S-CVI=0.96).
• Excellent internal consistency was confirmed (Cronbach's alpha=0.943).
• Exploratory factor analysis identified eight factors aligning with the questionnaire structure.

Conclusions:

• The developed instrument is a valid and reliable measure of nurses' preparedness for climate change.
• This tool can inform the development of targeted interventions to enhance nurses' capacity for climate action.
• Findings support the role of nurses in leading global climate change initiatives.