RESUMEN
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: A new instrument was designed specifically to evaluate nurses' knowledge, attitude, and practice toward patients who use opioids. This study team developed and tested the psychometric properties of the Perception of Opioid Use Survey (POUS) instrument. METHODS: The instrument was tested among 306 nurses at a 183 bed acute care community hospital, with psychometric evaluation for validity, reliability, and exploratory factor analysis. RESULTS: Internal consistency results were Cronbach's alpha = .550 for the overall scale and each subscale: Self-Efficacy = .796, Attitudes = .744, Community Impact = .806, and Causative Factors = .763. CONCLUSIONS: Psychometric testing results support that the POUS is valid, reliable, and significantly correlated with theoretically selected variables.