Nursing Principles Practice Basic Competencies Scale – Turkish Adaptation Study

Abstract

Objective: The main objectives of clinical education in nursing education are to develop the student’s competences in cognitive, affective and psychomotor areas. Reliable measurement tools are needed for the evaluation of these competences that begin to be gained with the first clinical practice. This methodological study investigated the cultural and Turkish validity of the Core Competence in Basic Nursing Practice Scale (CCFNPS) for undergraduate nursing students. Methods: A methodological research has been carried out on the cultural validation and adaptation of the scale. The construct’s validity was examined using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in a sample of 466 students. The scale’s internal consistency reliability was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha. Test-retest reliability was assessed using a dependent sample t-test and intraclass correlation with a sample of 30 students. Results: The scale’s content validity index was 0.98. The results of exploratory factor analysis revealed a five-factor structure similar to the original scale, the variance explained was 69.62%, but four items were removed from the scale due to low factor loading. Confirmatory factor analysis results (fit indices values) applied to the twenty – one items and five sub-dimensional structure were found to be acceptable. Scale Cronbach’s alpha values were above 0.70. Conclusion: The 21-item Turkish version of CCFNPS was found to be a valid and reliable scale for measuring the competencies acquired by students after their first clinical training.