A preliminary multicultural nursing competence instrument for assessing undergraduate student nurses

Abstract

Purpose: To develop a multicultural nursing competence instrument for use in assessing undergraduate student nurses (SNs). Methods: This study enrolled 322 student nurses (SNs) employed at five hospitals in Hunan Province. The nurses were identified by the cluster sampling method. The items on the competence instrument were retained or deleted after analyzing their coefficient of variation, coefficient of correlation with the total score, t-test results. Reliability tests and correlation analysis were used to examine internal consistency, while exploratory factor analysis was used to determine construct validity. Results: After analyzing items, the final multicultural nursing competence instrument comprised a total of 49 items that evaluated five dimensions. The instrument showed good overall reliability (0.958), and the internal consistency of the five dimensions ranged from 0.884 to 0.952. Furthermore, the correlations among the five dimensions were statistically significant (P < 0.01). An exploratory factor analysis of the five dimensions showed that five items incorporated aspects of cultural cognition (factor loading range, 0.824–0.888), five items incorporated aspects of cultural attitude (factor loading range, 0.629–0.815), twenty-two items involved cultural knowledge (factor loading range, 0.587–0.792), seven items incorporated aspects of cultural skills (factor loading range, 0.743–0.860), and 10 items involved cultural encounters (factor loading range, 0.522–0.909). Conclusion: The multicultural nursing competence instrument for SNs demonstrated good reliability and validity, and can be utilized in nursing education programs and research. Keywords: Assessment instrument, Exploratory factor analysis, Multicultural nursing competence, Student nurses