Background: The hidden curriculum in baccalaureate nursing programs is a means of moral education. Evaluation of the curriculum by students and faculty can increase awareness of its characteristics, which could be useful for planning and further development.
Objectives: This study's aim was to translate the Hidden Curriculum Evaluation Scale in Nursing Education (HCES-N) to Chinese, adapt the scale to the Chinese culture and evaluate its validity and reliability in a sample of undergraduate nursing students.
Design: Psychometric assessment of a tool using two cross-sectional surveys.
Settings: University-based schools of nursing in seven provinces and cities of China.
Participants: Undergraduate nursing students in a baccalaureate program.
Methods: The English version of the HCES-N was translated to Chinese using the Brislin translation model. The test-retest, internal consistency and split-half reliabilities of the HCES-N were examined in a sample of 1016 undergraduate nursing students. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted to examine the scale's content validity.
Results: The exploratory factor analysis of the final 44-item HCES-N revealed three common factors and a cumulative variance contribution rate of 73.535%. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that the final 44-item, 3-factor model was adequate for the s cale's structure (Chi-square/df = 6.59, RMSEA = 0.074, SRMR = 0.040, CFI = 0.911 and TLI = 0.905). The results confirmed that the Chinese version of HCES-N had good internal consistency (Cronbach α = 0.945); the scale's split-half-reliability was 0.794 and its test-retest reliability after two weeks was 0.894.
Conclusion: The Chinese version of the HCES-N has good reliability and validity and it can be used to assess the hidden curriculum in baccalaureate nursing programs.
Keywords: Nursing education. Hidden curriculum. Cultural adaptation. Validity and reliability.
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