Development of a scale to assess nurses' approaches to ethical issues

dAim: The aim of the study was to develop a "Scale for Assessing Nurses' Approaches to Ethical Issues" in order to determine the approaches of nurses to ethical issues. Method: The research was conducted in a qualitative and descriptive manner The first stage of the research was carried out between 10.01.2023-24.02.2023 with 34 participants to create the item pool of the planned scale, and the second stage was carried out between 03.06.2024-06.10.2024 with 600 participants. Qualitative data were collected using the "Interview Form" and quantitative data were collected using the "Draft Form of Scale for Evaluating Nurses' Approaches to Ethical Problems". MAXQDA was used in the analysis of qualitative data, and SPSS25 was used in the analysis of quantitative data. Result: Qualitative research data were evaluated under the theme of ethical approaches in four categories: the meaning of ethics, ethical problems encountered, nurses' approaches to ethical problems, factors that prevent ethical behavior, and the professional importance of ethical behavior. As a result of the literature and qualitative research data, the content validity of the 78-item scale pool created by the researcher was examined and the number of items was reduced to 43. A pilot application was made to 50 people using the scale draft form, and the items with item correlations below 0.20 were removed and the number of items was reduced to 28. In the exploratory factor analysis (EFA), a three-factor structure was obtained with factor loadings between 0.459 and 0.846. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supports EFA and χ2/df (3.543), RMSEA (0.092), NFI (0.92), NNFI (0.93) and SRMR (0.081) fit index values were obtained. In the internal consistency analysis, Cronbach alpha value was examined and it was found to be 0.924 in the total scale, 0.822 (professional approach), 0.937 (unresponsive approach), 0.822 (shy approach) in its sub-dimensions. Conclusion: It was determined that the "Nurses' Approaches to Ethical Problems Evaluation Scale" was a valid and reliable scale.