2021 Volume 41 Pages 344-353
Purpose: A scale to measure help-seeking engaged in by university nursing students in relation to clinical instructors (hereafter “help-seeking scale”) was developed and examined for reliability and validity.
Method: Questionnaires were administered to 2,120 third- and fourth-year students at nursing universities in 11 Japanese prefectures in February 2020. Questionnaire items included a proposed help-seeking scale (40 items), profiling questions, and a help-seeking style scale. In addition, retests were conducted with 375 students at two universities.
Results: A total of 808 students were analyzed (valid response rate: 38.1%). Item and factor analysis yielded two factors, “awareness of the costs of not seeking help” and “awareness of the benefits of receiving help,” and eight question items, and the fitness of the model was confirmed. The correlation coefficients between the overall scale and the help-seeking style scale were r = –.257 for avoidance style and r = .311 for independence style. Cronbach’s alpha (α) was .836. In addition, a total of 116 students were analyzed in the retests (valid response rate: 30.9%). The interclass correlation coefficient (r) was .860.
Conclusion: Based on the nature of the two factors, the name of the scale was revised to “Decision-making Scale to Measure Help-seeking by University Nursing Students in relation to Clinical Instructors.”
