Validation of the Simplified Chinese Palliative Care Nursing Self-competence Scale: Two cross-sectional studies

BACKGROUND Due to the increasing burden of life-limiting illnesses, palliative care has been demanded. Nurses’ palliative care competence is a vital factor in improving its accessibility. A reliable instrument is needed. Our aim was to translate and culturally adapt the Palliative Care Nursing Self-Competence scale (PCNSC) into Simplified Chinese (PCNSC-SC). METHODS Two cross-sectional studies were conducted after the content validity had been confirmed during the translation and adaption. The convergent validity, construct validity, internal consistency, and homogeneity were evaluated both in the first and second studies. The test-retest reliability was assessed only in the first study. Clinical nurses who had a registered nurse qualification certificate and at least 12 months of work experience from a tertiary hospital in Hubei, China participated in the two studies. RESULTS The PCNSC-SC contains eight dimensions and 34 items. Goodness-of-fit indices in confirmatory factor analysis met the criteria. The Cronbach’s alpha of the PCNSC-SC was 0.984 and 0.990 in the two studies, respectively. The test-retest reliability of the PCNSC-SC after two weeks was 0.717. CONCLUSION The Simplified Chinese version of the PCNSC (PCNSC-SC) can be used to evaluate perceived self-competence in palliative care of Chinese nurses with good reliability and validity.