Developing a scale to measure nurses' difficulty related to the treatment of gender dysphoric patients

Abstract

　This study aimed to develop a scale to measure the perceived difficulty experienced by nurses in treating and caring for patients diagnosed with gender dysphoria and examine its reliability and validity. We developed a 26-item preliminary scale through discussions with experts in gender dysphoria treatment. We administered a questionnaire including this scale to 1,010 nurses working at Okayama University Hospital and analyzed the data of 346 nurses who had been involved in the treatment of gender dysphoria and had no missing responses.
　A total of 20 items consisting of two factors, “relationship building” and “negative emotion for gender dysphoria,” were extracted by exploratory factor analysis, and we used them in the final version of the scale. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the entire scale was 0.879, indicating a high degree of internal consistency.
　However, the correlations with a communication skills scale (ENDCOREs) and the Scale of Gender Conception were limited, and the external validity could not be proven. This scale may be useful for evaluating nursing practice and educational support for nurses; however, there is room for further study on the scale validation.