RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Nursing handoff competency is the ability of the nurse performing the handoff to select and interpret the necessary information for patient care and to convey it efficiently to the nurse accepting the handoff. Nursing handoff is an important nursing task that ensures nursing care continuity, quality and patient safety. This study aimed to develop a scale to measure nursing handoff competency and verify its validity and reliability. METHODS: This study adopted a methodological design. A research process included three phases: (1) scale development (literature review and interviews); (2) scale validation (validity and reliability); (3) standard setting. Data were collected from 496 clinical nurses currently working in hospital wards, intensive care units, and emergency rooms, and who independently perform a handoff in South Korea. RESULTS: The final scale comprises a self-reported 4-points Ilert scale with 25 items based on four factors: knowledge on handoff methods, identification of patient information, judgment and transfer of nursing situation, and "formation of supportive relationships. Construct validity, criterion-related validity, and discrimination validities were verified and the fitness of the scale revealed good results in confirmatory factor analysis. The Cronbach's α of the whole tool was.912 and the cut-off score for satisfied/unsatisfied was.72. CONCLUSIONS: The developed scale can evaluate the nurse's handoff competencies and determine whether training is necessary. The measurement results of the scale can be used to select training subjects and compose the contents of the education program.
RESUMO
Critical reflection develops nurses' critical thinking and clinical reasoning competency. It is necessary to develop a validated scale to measure critical reflection competency considering the clinical situation and nursing context. Therefore, this study analyzed the concept of critical reflection, developed a scale to measure critical reflection competency, and verified its validity and reliability. The concept of critical reflection and components of the scale were confirmed through literature review and results of previous studies on content analysis. A total of 64 preliminary items were derived on a 5-point Likert scale. The adequacy of vocabulary and expression was checked, and a content validity test was conducted. An I-CVI value of 0.88-1.00 was computed. Construct validity was conducted through an exploratory factor analysis, and data collected from 296 clinical nurses were analyzed. Five factors and nineteen items were derived, and the explanatory power was found to be 53.02%. Cronbach's α of the scale was 0.853. Future studies need to develop a critical reflection education program and utilize this concept as an educational strategy. We propose a study to verify the effect of applying an educational program using the critical reflection competency scale developed in this study.
