Development of a Patient Safety Care Activity Scale for Clinical Nurses in Korea

Introduction: This study aimed to develop a scale measuring the patient safety care activity scale for clinical nurses and to verify validity and reliability it. Methods: : A conceptual framework and construct factors were extracted through extensive literature review and in-depth interviews with nursing professionals. In total, 55 items were derived based on the pilot survey. Data were collected from 428 nurses working at general hospitals and analyzed for verifying the reliability and validity of the scale. Results: : 8 factors containing 44 items were extracted from the exploratory factor analysis to verify the construct validity. The 8 factors were security, patient identification, operation (invasive procedure), medication, blood transfusion, management of infection, management of falls & sores, management of firefighting. These items were verified by convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity testing. The internal consistency reliability was acceptable (Cronbach’s α=.96). Conclusion: The developed patient safety care activity scale is expected to be used as the tool for the development of theory and improvement of patient safety care activities, the empirical testing for cause and effect of patient safety care activities, the development of interventions, education and training programs for improving patient safety care activities, and indicators for evaluation or accreditation of hospital service quality.