Self-assessment of soft skills in nursing: construction and content validation of an instrument

Abstract

Objective: To build and validate an instrument for self-assessment of soft skills in authentic nursing leadership. Methods: This methodological research was developed in three stages: literature review, development of the instrument entitled “LEADERSKILLS”, and validation of the instrument’s content by experts using the Delphi Online Technique. The first stage consisted of two narrative reviews. The second stage included a pilot test for the development of the instrument containing a narrative description of the most relevant soft skills (related to the exercise of authentic leadership by nurses) that were presented by the narrative literature review. The third and final stage included changes to the instrument after considerations made by the experts. Results: In the first round, the panel of experts was composed of 13 participants. Of the 17 multiple-choice questions evaluated in the first round, only two (belonging to the content and language components) did not obtain the Content Validity Index (CVI) ≥0.85. The first question was about the inadequate understanding of what the titles and subtitles of “LEADERSKILLS” were, and the second was about the instrument’s clarity and objectivity. The judges’ main suggestions were concentrated on the content, language, and layout components. The second round consisted of responses from five experts, and reaching a consensus on the questions was possible by obtaining CVI≥0.80. Conclusion: The instrument constructed to develop soft skills in nursing was considered valid in terms of content, layout, language, motivation, and culture, achieving coherent assessment and applicability to the target audience.