Development of The Postoperative Wound Infection Knowledge and Attitude Perceptions Scale

Title: Development of the postoperative wound infection knowledge and attitude perceptions scale. Objective: In our country, there is no measurement tool that measures the knowledge level and attitudes of nurses towards wound site infection. This study was conducted to develop a scale that determines nurses' knowledge levels and measures their attitudes about wound infection. Method: One of the quantitative research methods, the methodological method, was used in the study. The research was conducted with 334 nurses between 25 December 2023 and 25 December 2024. The study data were collected using the "Demographic Information Form", the "Postoperative Wound Infection Knowledge and Attitude Perception Scale Draft Form" developed by the researcher, and the Pressure Injury Management Self-Efficacy Scale for Nurses. The research data were analysed using SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 21 software. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the factor structure of the scale, while confirmatory factor analysis was performed to test the construct validity. Findings: As a result of the literature review, the researcher created a pool of 52 items and examined their content validity, reducing the number of items to 40. A pilot study was conducted on 30 individuals using a draft scale form, and items with correlations below 0.30 were removed. The suitability of the draft scale for factor analysis was evaluated. According to the results of the exploratory factor analysis, a scale consisting of 26 items and 5 sub-dimensions was obtained. Within the scope of criterion-based validity, a statistically significant relationship was found between the scale scores and the correlation with the draft scale form of the 'Pressure Injury Management Self-Efficacy Scale for Nurses.' In the internal consistency analysis, Cronbach's alpha values were examined, and the scale total was found to be 0.904, with sub-dimensions of 0.903 (factor 1), 0.796 (factor 2), 0.852 (factor 3), 0.622 (factor 4), and 0.834 (factor 5). Conclusion: As a result of the validity and reliability analyses, it was concluded that the "Postoperative Wound Infection Knowledge and Attitude Perception Scale" was valid and reliable. Key words: information, surgical wound infection, scale development , attitude