The Inpatient Experience with Nursing Care Scale (IPENCS): Development, validation and psychometric properties

Aim This study aimed to develop a patient experience with nursing care scale and to evaluate its psychometric properties. Background Patient experience is increasingly recognized as one of the pillars of quality in health care. Nevertheless, few instruments reflecting the preferences, needs and values of the health care recipients were developed to measure and improve patient experience with nursing care. Methods Instrument development and psychometric analysis were used, and a total of 1050 individuals participated in this study. The validity and reliability of the scale were evaluated. Results An exploratory factor analysis yielded a seven-dimension structure and explained 70.79% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the factor structure of the instrument. The content validity was very good (mean item content validity index [I-CVI] .96). Criterion validity was demonstrated with the general satisfaction question. Internal consistency reliability was found to be acceptable, as indicated by a Cronbach's alpha of .95, split-half reliability of .88 and item-total correlations of -.80. Conclusions This study produced a 30-item instrument, which exhibits good psychometric properties. Implications for Nursing Management This scale could be used to determine to what extent patients' nursing care needs are met, examine the strength and weakness of current care delivery and analyse the gap between patients' expectations and health care providers' behaviours.