Reliability and Validity of the Chinese Version of the Nurse's Spiritual Sensitivity Scale

Nurses' spiritual sensitivity refers to the ability to identify the spiritual needs of patients and their families and to address these needs through ethical decision-making in clinical practice. However, there are currently no validated instruments to measure the spiritual sensitivity of Chinese nurses.

This study aimed to adapt the Nurses' Spiritual Sensitivity Scale (NSSS) into Chinese and to evaluate its reliability and validity among Chinese nurses.

After forward translation, back-translation, cross-cultural adaptation, and expert consultation, a Chinese version of the NSSS was developed. In a cross-sectional study, a total of 508 nurses were recruited from two hospitals to evaluate the instrument's psychometric properties. Content validity was assessed using the content validity index (CVI), and structural validity was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (n = 303) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (n = 205). Reliability was examined using Cronbach's α coefficient for internal consistency and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for test-retest reliability.

The Chinese version of the NSSS comprises 20 items across two dimensions: professional spiritual sensitivity and inner spiritual sensitivity. The item-level CVI (I-CVI) ranged from 0.833 to 1.000; the scale-level CVI (S-CVI) was 0.900, and the average S-CVI was 0.983. EFA (n = 303) extracted two factors, with a cumulative variance explained of 61.658%. CFA (n = 205) supported a two-dimensional structure. The overall Cronbach's α coefficient of the scale was 0.927, and the test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.911. For the two dimensions, the Cronbach's α coefficients were 0.943 and 0.914, and the test-retest reliability coefficients were 0.867 and 0.935.

The Chinese version of the NSSS is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing the spiritual sensitivity of Chinese nurses.

The validated Chinese NSSS offers potential utility for screening training needs, evaluating educational interventions, and guiding clinical supervision in spiritual care.