Development Of A Revised Version Of Nursing Research Capacity Of Self-Evaluation Questionnaire

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to develop a revised version of Nursing Research Capacity of Self-Evaluation Questionnaire and to examine the reliability and validity of the Nursing Research Capacity of Self-Evaluation Questionnaire. MethodsA cross-sectional research design was conducted and nurses who work in the six thri-A-level general hospitals of TaiYuan city, in ShanXi province. The study was conducted in four phases. The first was to analysis the original questionnaire developed by Liu RuiShuang(2004) , find what need to be revised, review relative documents of evaluation of research capacity and draft items The second was to pick up the proper items and diminish improper items with item analysis, factor analysis and correlation analysis. The third was to examine the reliability and validity of Nursing Research Capacity of Self-Evaluation Questionnaire, confirmatory factor analysis was used to modify model. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were used for the reliability. Content validity and construct validity were used for validity. The fourth was to evaluate the research capacity of nurses using the revised Nursing Research Capacity of Self-Evaluation Questionnaire. SPSS 15.0 for windows and LISREL 8.70 software were used to date processing.ResultsPhase 1: After analyzing , there were some obvious deficiencies such as the reply rate of some items of original questionnaire is low, some items were non't included and validity was not satisfactory. The theoretical framework and conceptual framework was developed after reviewing relative literatures. Draft was developed consisted of 7 dimensions and 50 items.Phase 2: A random sample of three hospitals that consisted of 245 nurses was used . Item analysis, factor analysis and correlation analysis were used to diminish items of the questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify latent factor . There was 13 items delected. The form includes 37 items ,divided into six dimensions: capacity of writing a research report (8 items),capacity of searching and reviewing literature(6 items), capacity of designing research protocol (5 items),capacity of practicing research (6 items),capacity of analyzing research data and material(7 items) ,capacity of generating the research ideas(5 items)Phase 3: A random sample of six hospitals that consisted of 394 nurses was used. The constructed validity of the 37-items Nursing Research Capacity of Self-Evaluation Questionnaire was examined by confirmatory factor analysis, the result was not very satisfactory. After modifying, the another 7 items was diminished and some fit index was acceptable. The convergent validity and discriminate validity were good, because the correlation coefficients between subcales and the total scale as well as subscales and subscales were 0.595～0.84 and 0.333～0.685 (P<0.05) respectively. The Cronbach'ɑand test-retest reliability of the were 0.861 and 0.902 respectively.Phase 4: The evaluation of the revised questionnaire date from 394 nurses revealed that the research capacity of all nurses were low, although the scores had lage span. The differences of research capacity of nurses with different education levels and titles of technical personnel were significant(P<0.05).The difference of capacity of generating the research ideas was significant(P<0.05)among nurses who had more work experience.ConclusionsThe results of this study could be a measurement and evaluation tool of research capacity of nurses. The questionnaire could be used by nurses , nurses administers and nurses educators.