Reliability and validity study of the Spanish adaptation of the "Student Satisfaction and Self-Confidence in Learning Scale" (SCLS).

David Bande,Lorena Molina-Raya,Juan Roldán-Merino,Irma Casas,Mariona Farrés-Tarafa,Ainoa Biurrun-Garrido,Marta Raurell-Torredà,Barbara Hurtado-Pardos,Urbano Lorenzo-Seva

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0255188

Abstract

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) recommends the use of new educational methodologies and the evaluation of student satisfaction. Different instruments have been developed in Spain to evaluate different aspects such as clinical decisions and teamwork, however no instruments have been found that specifically evaluate student self-confidence and satisfaction during clinical simulation. The aim was to translate the Student Satisfaction and Self-Confidence in Learning Scale (SCLS) questionnaire into Spanish and analyse its reliability and validity and understand the level of satisfaction and self-confidence of nursing students with respect to learning in clinical simulations. The study was carried out in two phases: (1) adaptation of the questionnaire into Spanish. (2) Cross-sectional study in a sample of 489 nursing students. The reliability and exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyses were performed. To analyse the relationship of the scale scores with the socio-demographic variables, the Fisher Student T-test or the ANOVA was used. The scale demonstrated high internal consistency reliability for the total scale and each of its dimensions. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.88 (0.83 to 0.81) for each of the dimensions. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed that both the one-dimensional and two-dimensional models were acceptable. The results showed average scores above 4 for both dimensions. The SCLS-Spanish translation demonstrated evidence of its validity and reliability for use to understand the level of satisfaction and self-confidence of nursing students in clinical simulation. Clinical simulations help students to increase their levels of confidence and satisfaction, enabling them to face real scenarios in clinical practice.

Highlights

The complexity of real world medical practice, high levels of patient acuity and requirements to mitigate risk and maximise safety and quality of care delivery mean that hospitals cannot maintain old on-the-job trial and error learning methods
Clinical simulations help students to increase their levels of confidence and satisfaction, enabling them to face real scenarios in clinical practice
The mean age was 23.2 (SD 5.1), 82.4% being women. 60.1% of the students were enrolled in the morning study schedule. 60.5% of the students declared that they are currently working and of these, 43.6% had permanent employment. 67.2% of the students declared having work experience in the health field (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

The complexity of real world medical practice, high levels of patient acuity and requirements to mitigate risk and maximise safety and quality of care delivery mean that hospitals cannot maintain old on-the-job trial and error learning methods. Simulated-based learning (SBL) can improve learning compared to traditional methodologies, and its is especially effective in undergraduate students [5]. It aims to train their technical skills (procedures) and non-technical skills (decision-making, leadership, critical thinking, communication and teamwork, situational awareness, safe practice, adverse event minimization/mitigation and professionalism) [6] that will help them to transfer the knowledge learned to clinical practice. Non-technical skills can help newly qualified nurses to better understand their own role as a nurse, to know what others expect from them in professional practice, to improve their self-confidence and gain self-awarenness of their weaknesses [7]. Various studies [8,9,10,11,12] affirm that nursing students consider simulation to be an important methodology for their learning, that increases their satisfaction and that performing simulation activities consecutively increases their self-confidence, a sense of security which is soundly-based on the nurses ’awareness of their own capability’ which can contribute to reducing the theory-practice gap [13] On the other hand, by increasing selfconfidence, it decreases the anxiety that clinical practice can cause [14]

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