Adaptation and validation of the clinical supervision self-assessment tool among registered nurses

Abstract

Background: Clinical supervision of pre-registration nursing students has become an integral role of the registered nurse. The Clinical Supervision Self-assessment Tool relating to knowledge (CSAT-Knowledge) and the individual's skills (CSAT-Skills) of clinical supervision and comprising of 30 items each originally is widely used for nurses in Australia. However, the psychometric properties of this tool have not been previously reported.

Objective: To adapt the Clinical Supervision Self-Assessment Tool for nurses and to investigate the psychometric properties of the modified tool to measure registered nurses' knowledge and skills regarding supervising pre-registration nursing students.

Design: Instrument adaptation and psychometric testing.

Participants/settings: A convenience sample of 229 registered nurses in a tertiary teaching hospital in Australia.

Method: A two-phase prospective study was conducted. Phase 1 involved the modification of the Clinical supervision Self-Assessment Tool, content validity and pilot testing of the modified version. Phase 2 included the psychometric testing of the modified Clinical Supervision Self-Assessment Tool (mCSAT-Knowledge; mCSAT-Skills).

Results: The mCSAT-Knowledge and mCSAT-Skills comprised of 30 items each. The content validity of the mCSAT was considered satisfactory based on the feedback from the expert panel. Results of the exploratory factor analysis supported a three-factor structure identified as: evaluating clinical learning; facilitating clinical learning and problem solving. The internal consistency was high with a Cronbach's alpha values >0.90. The construct validity was supported as nurses who had undertaken clinical supervision training demonstrated significantly higher clinical supervision knowledge and skills scores than those had no training.

Conclusions: The findings provide empirical support for the modified Clinical Supervision Self-Assessment Tool as a valid measure of registered nurses' knowledge and skills regarding the clinical supervision of pre-registration nursing students. The tool requires further psychometric testing in different samples of nurses to enable validation in other settings.

Keywords: Clinical supervision; Factor analysis; Instrument adaptation; Knowledge; Nursing students; Skills.