Development of Community Health Competency Scale for Nurses.

Background and Purpose: This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable measurement instrument to assess nurses' community health competencies, based on preliminary findings identifying core competencies in public health nursing.

Methods

The study was conducted with 769 nurses working in university hospitals, city hospitals, and primary care centers in a province in Eastern Turkey. Data were collected using a Descriptive Information Form and the Community Health Competency Scale for Nurses. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 22.0 and Analysis of Moment Structures 24.0.

Results

The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value was .912, and the scale explained 63.007% of the total variance. Factor loadings ranged from .495 to .724. Coefficient alpha was .953 for the total scale, with subdimension values ranging from .87 to .95.

Conclusions

The 38-item scale with four subdimensions was found to be a valid and reliable instrument for assessing nurses' community health competencies in Turkey.