The Turkish version of the Patient Safety Competency Self-Evaluation Tool: A validity and reliability study

Abstract

Aim

To test the validity and reliability of the Patient Safety Competency Self-Evaluation Tool in Turkish, which was developed to evaluate the patient safety competencies of nursing students.

Background

In nursing education, it is crucial to provide students with the necessary professional knowledge and skills as well as appropriate attitudes in certain subjects. It is essential to address frequently encountered problems, to train nurses who can be aware of patient safety and improve the quality of nursing education. A valid and reliable measurement tool is needed to evaluate nursing students' current patient safety knowledge, skills and attitudes and review the curriculum and learning objectives in this context.

Design

This is a validation study with a cross-sectional design.

Methods

The study sample consisted of 417 third and fourth-grade nursing students studying at two universities in Istanbul and volunteered to participate in the research. The study used the Turkish version of the Patient Safety Competency Self-Evaluation Tool was used for data collection. Content validity, construct validity, stability and reliability tests were performed. Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS programs. Ethics committee approval and permission from the institutions were obtained.

Results

Nursing students’ mean age was 21.98 (SD = 1.17). The Scope Validity Index of the scale was calculated as 0.97. As a result of the confirmatory factor analysis performed in the original structure consisting of three dimensions, 12 factors and 41 items, it was found that all items were in the sub-dimensions of the original scale and factor loads were between 0.168 and 0.918. Four models were tested in confirmatory factor analysis and Model 4 had the best-fit indices. They were calculated as: χ2/df = 2.38, RMSEA = 0.06 and CFI = 0.91 for Model 4. Cronbach's alpha value of the total scale was 0.941 and ranged between 0.642 and 0.932 in its sub-dimensions.

Conclusion

The Turkish version of the Patient Safety Competency Self-Evaluation Tool is valid and reliable to measure nursing students’ patient safety competencies.

Introduction

Adverse events are estimated to be the third leading cause of death in developed countries (Makary and Daniel, 2016). Furthermore, it is estimated that 10–25% of hospitalized patients experience preventable adverse events each year (Levett-Jones et al., 2020). For this reason, patient safety is an essential issue in healthcare services and draws attention worldwide (Lee et al., 2014, Taskiran et al., 2020).

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines patient safety as “the prevention of errors and adverse effects to patients associated with healthcare” (World Health Organization, 2017)(WHO, 2017). Nurses have a crucial role in ensuring and maintaining patient safety (Fisher and Kiernan, 2019, Levett-Jones et al., 2020). Compared with other healthcare professionals, nurses who interact with patients for a long time can recognize risk factors and conditions earlier (Tella et al., 2014). Therefore, nurses can support not only patient safety but also be effective in reducing errors. Ensuring patient safety is closely related to the development of a safety culture in health institutions. Therefore, it is essential to form a safety culture where healthcare professionals are well-trained and informed about patient safety (Kim, Lee, and Kim, 2021). Therefore, nursing graduates need to have the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to identify and address factors that may endanger patient safety (Usher et al., 2017).