Nurses' knowledge levels regarding shaken baby syndrome: A scale development study

Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is a preventable form of child abuse that can cause severe neurological injury and death in infants. Nurses play a critical role in the early recognition, prevention, and management of SBS due to their close interaction with infants and families. However, the literature highlights a lack of standardized and psychometrically sound instruments specifically designed to assess nurses' knowledge regarding SBS.

This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable scale to assess nurses' knowledge levels regarding Shaken Baby Syndrome.

This methodological study was conducted between January and May 2025 with 318 nurses working in the province of Türkiye. An initial 30-item item pool was created based on a comprehensive literature review. Content validity was evaluated by 10 experts, after which the scale was reduced to 25 items and administered to participants. Data were analyzed using item analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and Cronbach's alpha to evaluate validity and reliability.

EFA resulted in the removal of one item, producing a 24-item scale with three subscales. The model demonstrated acceptable goodness-of-fit indices, and Cronbach's alpha values ranged from 0.80 to 0.89 for the subscales and 0.92 for the overall scale, indicating high internal consistency.

The developed scale provides preliminary evidence of validity and reliability for assessing nurses' knowledge of SBS within the studied context. While it shows promise for clinical assessment and educational programming, further multi-center validation is required to confirm its broader applicability across different regions.