Development of The Patient Spiritual Support Needs Scale and Examination of Its Psychometric Properties

Abstract

This study aimed to develop the Patient Spiritual Support Needs Scale (PSSNS) and to examine its psychometric properties. This methodological study was conducted between January and June 2017 in the inpatient clinics of Afyon Kocatepe University Hospital. A draft scale consisting of 16 items was created for the PSSNS. Validity was assessed through content and construct validity, while reliability was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha and item-total score correlations. The patient sample consisted of 50.5% males and 49.5% females. A total of 80.6% stated that they expected spiritual support from nurses, whereas 19.7% reported that nurses paid attention to spiritual support. In internal consistency testing of the PSSNS, the Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient was 0.83, and item-total correlations ranged from 0.255 to 0.627. Four items with item-total correlation values below 0.20 were removed from the scale. The content validity index of the PSSNS was determined to be 0.98. As a result of the exploratory factor analysis, KMO was 0.811, and Bartlett’s test X² value was 1499.302 (p<0.001). The three-factor structure explained 65.398% of the total variance. The first factor explained 37.843% of the variance, the second 16.497%, and the third 11.058%. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated acceptable fit indices (χ2/df = 2.843, GFI = 0.935, CFI = 0.943, RMSEA = 0.080). The examination of the psychometric properties of the PSSNS showed that the scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool.