Preserving qualitative meaning in instrument development

This article presents the process through which qualitative meaning can be preserved in instrumentation. Examples illustrating this process are taken from the development of the Index of Readiness, a scale designed to assess and evaluate individual appraisal of readiness to initiate health behavior change. The generation of scale items from qualitative data and the initial steps taken to assess instrument reliability and validity as a way of preserving the meaning inherent in qualitatively generated data are described. The creation of measurement scales that reflect the uniqueness of individual experience and meet criteria for psychometric testing challenges nurse researchers to continue to devise more effective ways of representing and investigating the complexities of human experience. The use of qualitative data for instrument development is an important aspect of such scale development.