The validity and reliability of an instrument to assess nursing competencies in spiritual care

Abstract

Aim. This study contributes to the development of a valid and reliable instrument, the spiritual care competence scale, as an instrument to assess nurses’ competencies in providing spiritual care. Background. Measuring these competencies and their development is important and the construction of a reliable and valid instrument is recommended in the literature. Design. Survey. Method. The participants were students from Bachelor‐level nursing schools in the Netherlands (n = 197) participating in a cross‐sectional study. The items in the instrument were hypothesised from a competency profile regarding spiritual care. Construct validity was evaluated by factor analysis and internal consistency was estimated with Cronbach’s alpha and the average inter‐item correlation. In addition, the test–retest reliability of the instrument was determined at a two‐week interval between baseline and follow‐up (n = 109). Results. The spiritual care competence scale comprises six spiritual‐care‐related nursing competencies. These domains were labelled: 1 assessment and implementation of spiritual care (Cronbach’s α 0·82) 2 professionalisation and improving the quality of spiritual care (Cronbach’s α 0·82) 3 personal support and patient counseling (Cronbach’s α 0·81) 4 referral to professionals (Cronbach’s α 0·79) 5 attitude towards the patient’s spirituality (Cronbach’s α 0·56) 6 communication (Cronbach’s α 0·71). These subscales showed good homogeneity with average inter‐item correlations >0·25 and a good test–retest reliability. Conclusion. This study conducted in a nursing‐student population demonstrated valid and reliable scales for measuring spiritual care competencies. The psychometric quality of the instrument proved satisfactory. This study does have some methodological limitations that should be taken into account in any further development of the spiritual care competence scale. Relevance to clinical practice. The spiritual care competence scale can be used to assess the areas in which nurses need to receive training in spiritual care and can be used to assess whether nurses have developed competencies in providing spiritual care.

Nurses’ Perceptions of Spirituality and Spiritual Care in Different Health Care Settings in the Netherlands

“…(3) Self-assessment of spiritual care competence: measured with the Spiritual Care Competence Scale (SCCS) [21]. The SCCS contains 27 items scored on a 5-point scale ranging from "completely disagree" (1) to "completely agree" (5).…”

“…It has good homogeneity, average inter-item correlations (> 0.25) and good test-retest reliability. Cronbach's Alpha scores range from 0.56 to 0.82 [21].…”

An Exploration of Specialist Palliative Care Nurses’ Experiences of Providing Care to Hospice Inpatients from Minority Ethnic Groups—Implication for Religious and Spiritual Care

“…Additionally, while resources were available to [14], and utilised by, participants in practice, a subset of participants highlighted the need for more "hands-on experience" specific to the religious needs of this patient cohort. Any such experience or education however, needs to take into consideration the competencies required for providing spiritual care in nursing as suggested by Van Leeuwen and Cusveller and his colleagues [32][33][34]: At the same time, to focus solely upon the beliefs and needs of the minority ethnic and religious groups may cause marginalisation of the majority or be seen to minimize these [35]. Therefore, a cohesive approach to understanding patients' and families' spiritual and religious needs in a hospice setting is required.…”

Relationship between Nurses' Spiritual Well-being and Nurses' perception of competence in providing spiritual care for patients

“…Spiritual Care Competence Scale (SCCS) were designed by Van Leeuwen and Cusveller (2009) (14). This scale has 27 questions with 5 point Likert scale (1.…”

“…It should be mentioned that said questionnaire as .56 to .82. (14) Reliability and validity was measured by Khalaj et.al in 2013 and Cronbach alpha of questionnaire was .77 and for subscales was .65 to 0.85 (15).…”