Development of a Nursing Competence for End-of-life Care Scale in Nursing Homes

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of a scale developed to evaluate the degree of nursing competence for end-of-life care in nursing homes, and to determine the practicality of its application.
Method: A total of 298 nurses working in nursing homes were evaluated in terms of their degree of nursing competence for end-of-life care in nursing homes. The data collected were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis.
Results: The average value of Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the reliability of the scale was 0.848, which confirmed internal consistency. Goodness of fit was verified via confirmatory factor analysis, and a significant correlation between the proposed scale and an existing scale was observed.
Conclusion: Nursing competence for end-of-life service in nursing homes was evaluated in terms of 21 items relating to 5 factors identified as having reliability, construct validity, criterion-related validity and convergent validity. The results of evaluation regarding nursing competence for end-of-life service in nursing homes suggested general versatility in various facilities for the elderly.