Psychometric testing of an instrument measuring nurse aides' patient safety attitudes.

ABSTRACT

AIM: To develop and test the patient safety attitude scale-nurse aide (PSAS-NA) scale in measuring nurse aides' attitudes to patient safety and event reporting. BACKGROUND: Although nurse aides are unlicensed personnel, their roles in delivering care can not be ignored. A measure specific to nurse aides is needed. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional design study. A literature review was conducted to generate items. Content validity, construct validity, convergent/divergent validity and internal consistency were examined. A convenient sample of 213 nurse aides working at two hospital-based long-term care institutions in Taiwan was recruited. RESULTS: From the initial 61-item scale, a 39-item instrument was retained by principal component analysis (PCA) and four factors were extracted daily safety practice, organizational safety strategies, event reporting practice and event reporting conflict. Four factors accounted for 51.74% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.83 to 0.92. Event reporting conflict was significantly negatively correlated with event reporting practice (r = -0.16, P < 0.05). IMPLICATION FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT The PSAS-NA can be used to assess nurse aides' attitudes to patient safety and event reporting. Health care mangers/supervisors can provide education and training programmes to nurse aides according to the assessment results.