Developing a new questionnaire to measure nurse caring behaviours: a mixed method study

Abstract

Rationale, aims and objective: Measuring nurse caring may provide empirical evidence to assist clinicians and administrators in making decisions. The aim of the present study was to develop a new scale, called the CARE-Italy, grounded in the Italian culture, for measuring nurses’ caring behaviours.Methods: A mixed method approach was applied in developing the instrument. The item generation and scale development were performed through a qualitative phenomenological approach and a focus group with a panel of experts. The provisional instrument was then administered to a convenience sample of 439 nurses and then questionnaire scaling and association analysis were performed. A dual scaling analysis of successive categories was performed to identify preferences on the rating scale. An item selection based on item-scale correlations and item weights was performed. Subjects’ mean scores were computed and standardized in a 100-point scale.Results: The 20 caring behaviours perceived by nurses to be the most important ones constitute the final version of the CARE-Italy questionnaire. They concern patients’ surveillance, professional relationships with patients, satisfying patients’ and family members’ practical and psychological needs, team consultation and nurses’ emotions.Conclusions: A relational and paternalistic caring approach by Italian nurses seems to be suggested. The next step of the research project will be the validation process of the CARE-Italy questionnaire with a Likert scale measuring the occurrence of the 20 caring behaviours in daily practice.

Cultural adaptation and psychometric validation of the Caring Efficacy scale in a sample of Italian nurses

“…The scale assesses the nurses’ perceived self-efficacy in conveying caring orientation and in reinforcing a therapeutic relationship with patients. In Italian context, several tools measuring human caring are available, such as Care-Italy questionnaire [13] and Caring Behavior Inventory (CBIta). These tools analyse caring by considering different factors: patients’ surveillance, professional relationships with patients, satisfying patients’ and family members’ practical and psychological needs, team consultation, and nurses’ emotions.…”

“…Caring measures have already been developed and grounded by several studies in the Italian culture (see [11–15]). However, these validated instruments specifically refer to perceived caring behaviour [14,15] and to perceptions related to the dimensions of caring [11,13] in nurses and patients. Although these studies represent an important basis for caring research, any specific instruments providing for the measurement of self-reported caring competence cannot be found in the Italian nursing context.…”

Pediatric Version of the Nurse Caring Behavior Scale: A Cross-Sectional Study in Pediatric Hemato-Oncology Centers

“…In Italy there are the following caring measuring tools: The Italian Caring Behaviors Inventory (CBIta) (Tomietto et al, 2014;Fenizia et al 2019), the Nursing Students' Perception of Instructor Caring (NSPIC) (Arrigoni et al, 2017), the CARE-Italy (Ambrosi et al, 2018), and the Italian Language Nurse Caring Behaviors Scale (NCBS) .…”