Validation Study of the Revised Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS): A Cross-Sectional Survey in Poland

Mariusz Panczyk; Lucyna Kwiećkowska; Beata Dobrowolska; Ewa Borowiak; Danuta Dyk; Elżbieta Grochans; Dorota Kozieł; Maria Kózka; Halina Kulik; Jolanta Lewko; Wilfred McSherry; Joanna Gotlib; Mariusz Jaworski

doi:10.2147/JMDH.S394941

Validation Study of the Revised Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS): A Cross-Sectional Survey in Poland

J Multidiscip Healthc. 2023 May 23:16:1439-1453. doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S394941. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Education and Research of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
² Department of Holistic Care and Management in Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland.
³ Department of Conservative Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland.
⁴ Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland.
⁵ Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Pomeranian Medical University, Szczecin, Poland.
⁶ Collegium Medicum, Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland.
⁷ Department of Clinical Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Jagiellonian University Collegium Medicum in Krakow, Krakow, Poland.
⁸ Department of Nursing Propedeutics, School of Health Sciences, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland.
⁹ Department of Primary Health Care, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland.
¹⁰ Department of Nursing, School of Health, Science and Wellbeing, Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, UK.

Abstract

Introduction: The use of a validated scale, Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS) to measure nurses' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to analyse selected psychometric properties of the Polish version of the SSCRS, among them the applicability of the dimensions of spiritual care in nursing, ie, spirituality, spiritual care, religiosity and personalized care, to Polish conditions.

Methods: Poland-wide multicentre study with a cross-sectional validation design. The study was conducted between March and June 2019. Seven Polish Nursing Faculties accepted the invitation to participate in the study. A representative sample of 853 nurses enrolled in MSc (postgraduate) programs in nursing participated. After translation and cultural adaption of the SSCRS, the instrument underwent a full psychometric evaluation of its construct validity using (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis), internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha and correlation analysis), reliability (test-retest analysis), known-group validity (Student's t-test) analysis.

Results: The exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the Polish version of the SSCRS was a three-factor model with "Activity-centred spiritual care" (9 items), "Emotional support-centred spiritual care" (5 items) and "Religiosity" (3 items) domains. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole scale was 0.902, and the alpha values for the individual domains were 0.898, 0.873 and 0.563, respectively. The three domains mentioned above seemed to provide a comprehensive understanding of spiritual care perceived subjectively by Polish MSc in nursing students.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated a substantial degree of similarity in the selected psychometric characteristics of the Polish version of SSCRS and the original scale.

Keywords: holistic nursing; nursing care; postgraduate nursing education; spirituality.

Grants and funding

This project was financed under the program of the Minister of Science and Higher Education called Regional Initiative of Excellence in the years 2019–2023, project no 024/RID/2018/19, amount of financing PLN 11,999,000.00. The funders had no influence on the way the research was conducted, the content of the publication or the final conclusions.