Contribution of students to nursing practice settings during clinical training: Design and validation of a questionnaire

Abstract

Background: A validated questionnaire to measure the contributions of nursing students to clinical settings could potentially assist in the improved management of students in healthcare institutions.

Aim: To develop and test the psychometric properties of the questionnaire 'Nursing Student Contributions to Clinical Settings' (CEEEC, Spanish acronym for 'Contribuciones de los Estudiantes de Enfermería a los Entornos Clínicos').

Design: Instrument design and psychometric testing.

Participants/settings: A multicentre study involving 1,098 nursing professionals from three universities and five hospitals of Spain, between January 2019 and March 2020.

Methods: The study was carried out in two phases. Phase 1 involved the questionnaire design by experts (n = 28), which required a review of the available literature, cognitive interviews and Delphi rounds, and a preliminary validity study, which included a pilot test with responses from a sample of nurses (n = 143). Phase 2 involved a formal validation with a wider sample of nurses (n = 927), including factor analysis and a study of convergent validity with the Practice Environment Scale-Nursing Work Index and Health Sciences-Evidence Based Practice.

Results: Experts selected 42 items on student contributions. After cognitive interviews, three items were eliminated and seven failed to reach the minimum content validity index (78%). Based on the remaining 32 items, the discrimination index of each item was calculated, and those with <0.3, eight items were sequentially eliminated. The resulting questionnaire contained 24 items grouped into a single factor, which explained 41% of the variance. The internal consistency was excellent (Cronbach's alpha: 0.94), and the convergent validity was confirmed.

Conclusions: A 24-item questionnaire was designed and validated to measure the contributions of nursing students to clinical practice settings.

Impact: Most hospitals are also teaching centres where nursing students undergo clinical practice. The application of this test will provide insight into the nursing professionals' perception of the students' role.

Keywords: clinical clerkship; evidence-based nursing; instrument development; nursing; nursing students; surveys and questionnaires; validation study.