Assessment of the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the perceptions of empowerment in midwifery practice scale-revised (PEMS-R-IT) in midwives

Abstract

INTRODUCTION A higher degree of midwives' empowerment is associated with greater job satisfaction and better midwifery care outcomes for women and their families. Empowered midwives are able to better empower women who in turn have a positive influence on the midwives' empowerment. The aim of this study was the translation, cultural adaptation, and validation of the perceptions of empowerment in midwifery scale-revised (PEMS-R) in a group of Italian midwives. METHODS The World Health Organization (WHO) method was adopted to achieve the PEMS-R Italian version. This process involved five steps: 1) forward translation, 2) expert panel translation, 3) back-translation, 4) pre-testing and cognitive interviewing, and 5) final version. The test's internal consistency and validity were assessed by following international guidelines. Internal consistency was examined through Cronbach's alpha (α) coefficient. RESULTS The PEMS-R-IT was administered to 147 Italian midwives from northern Italy. Factor analysis of the 19 items, extracted 4 factors that explained 74.96% of the variance. The Student's t-test for independent samples was used to identify a possible correlation between a higher/lower perception of empowerment and: 1) the education level, and 2) the years of experience of recruited midwives. No statistically significant differences were obtained in either case. The PEMS-R-IT was found to have a good internal consistency for each of its 4 subscales. CONCLUSIONS The PEMS-R-IT is a valid and reliable tool, useful to assess midwives' empowerment. It can be used in both clinical practice and research in order to investigate the level of empowerment of midwives within the Italian national context.

Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Perceptions of Empowerment in Midwifery Scale in the Spanish Context (PEMS-e)

“…Currently, such combination is discouraged and this approach to FA is much criticized [28,29,39]. Moreover, in some studies, little or no information is provided on the type of EFA that has been used, which makes comparison very difficult [24,26]. In our view, there is little consistency in many of the FA conducted to date in the validation and adaptation studies of the PEMS in other countries, which raises the possibility of conducting new analyses based on current methodological recommendations for FA.…”

“…Both the PEMS and the PEMS-R have been used in several studies [10,21,22]. Validation studies of the PEMS have been published in Portuguese [23], Turkish [24] and Persian [25], while the PEMS-R has been validated in Italian [26]. Table S1 shows the characteristics of all studies, as well as the variations made on the original scale to date.…”

Assessment of the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Revised Impact of Miscarriage Scale (RIMS): a validity and reliability study

“…This work was carried out by a team of researchers from the University of Florence and University of Milano-Bicocca. The research group has previous experience in validation of scales applied in the obstetric eld 14,[17][18][19] . After receiving consent from the developers of RIMS, the scale was translated from English to Italian following the methodology reported in "Translation and Cultural Adaptation of Patient Reported Outcomes Measures -Principles of Good Practice" 20 .…”