Psychometric properties of self-assessment clinical competency questionnaire in baccalaureate nursing students

Abstract

Background: One of the main challenges of nursing student education is the lack of clinical competence that reduces the quality of patients care. Measuring the clinical competency of undergraduate nursing students is effective in curriculum developing, planning, and learning evaluation.  Objective: To validate self-assessment clinical competence questionnaire of undergraduate nursing students. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study at Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran, 2015-2016. The original version of the self-assessment questionnaire for baccalaureate nursing graduates was translated to Persian by the World Health Organization's (WHO) method. The psychometric evaluation of the questionnaire was conducted on 300 nursing students. The participants were selected by convenience sampling. The tool validity was confirmed by exploratory factor analyses. The reliability was investigated by internal consistency and test-retest. Results: Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.96 (0.82-0.91). Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.98 (0.88-0.99). Five factors were extracted by analysis of clinical competency tool of undergraduate nursing students. The factors included technical competence, advanced competence, ethical competence, care management and safety competence. Conclusions: The Persian version of the clinical competence assessment tool has acceptable psychometric characteristics in the Iranian nursing students’ community. This questionnaire can be used as a valid tool in planning and research management areas.