Construction and validation of the Salus-Ed questionnaire for measuring teaching competencies among nurse educators

The quality of nursing education depends not only on clinical expertise but also on educators' pedagogical competencies. Despite increasing recognition of the importance of teaching skills in higher education, there is no consensus on which competencies are essential for nurse educators, nor are there comprehensive and validated tools for their assessment. This study aimed to develop and validate the Salus-Ed questionnaire to measure teaching competencies among nurse educators.

A two-phase study was conducted. In Phase I, the Salus-Ed questionnaire was developed based on a teaching competency model comprising nine domains. Content validity was assessed by 31 expert nurse educators from five Spanish universities, who evaluated 33 items in terms of coherence, relevance, and clarity using a 5-point Likert scale. In Phase II, a psychometric validation was carried out with 242 nurse educators across Spain using non-probabilistic snowball sampling. Construct validity was assessed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA), including the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett's test of sphericity. The EFA was performed using principal factor extraction with varimax orthogonal rotation, which constrains factors to remain uncorrelated by definition. Internal consistency was analyzed using Cronbach's alpha coefficients. Data were processed using Stata^® 18.

All items scored above 4 in the expert review phase, confirming strong content validity. The validation sample was predominantly female (74.8%), with a mean age of 47 years; 61.6% held a doctoral degree. The EFA revealed six factors explaining the underlying structure of teaching competencies: (1) relationship and communication (α = 0.91), (2) self-management and teaching planning (α = 0.87), (3) methodological (α = 0.84), (4) teamwork and collaborative management (α = 0.82), (5) disciplinary (α = 0.74), and (6) ethical and reflective competence (α = 0.72). The overall internal consistency was excellent (α = 0.95). Since an orthogonal rotation was applied, the correlations between factors were restricted to zero and therefore not estimated. The KMO index was 0.93 and Bartlett's test was significant (p < 0.001), indicating that the data met the assumptions required to perform the EFA. All subscale coefficients met the recommended thresholds for new instruments.

The Salus-Ed questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool for assessing teaching competencies among nurse educators. Its application may support competency diagnosis, inform targeted professional development, and contribute to improving nursing education quality.