Pediatric Pain Management Knowledge Scale for Nursing Students: Assessment of the Psychometric Properties

Abstract

Aim:This study was designed to determine the psychometric properties of the scale developed to evaluate the pediatric pain management knowledge (PPMK) and the skills of nursing students.Materials and Methods:This is a methodological study conducted to develop the PPMK scale for nursing students. A 29-item scale was administered to a total of 343 nursing students who were in their 3rd year taking the pediatric nursing course or in their 4th year carrying out their internship training at a state university. The scale items were selected through item-total score correlation analysis, and the sensitivity and specificity of the scale were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic analysis.Results:The students’ mean age was 21.92±1.150 years and 76.2% were female. As a result of explanatory factor analysis, the scale consisting of six subscales was found to explain 50.30% of the total variance. The fit indexes of confirmatory factor analysis were calculated to be root mean square error of approximation 0.063, goodness of fit index 0.85, comparative fit index 0.93, incremental fit index 0.93, relative fit index 0.86, normed fit index 0.88, and Tucker-Lewis index 0.92. The Cronbach alpha coefficient of the entire scale was determined to be 0.864. The correlations of the scale items with the scale total score ranged between 0.285 and 0.625.Conclusion:In this study, it was determined that the PPMK scale was a valid and reliable tool for nursing students. It is recommended that after the students’ knowledge level is determined using the current measurement tool for PPMK, the nursing curriculum should be revised and enriched, and further studies should be conducted on this topic.

Keywords

• nurse
• student
• pediatrics
• pain
• knowledge