Development of a questionnaire measuring attitudes towards advanced nursing roles in acute care

Abstract

Background: Although benefits of advanced nursing roles in acute care are well known, the development in Germany is still in its infancy. Several factors affect the development and implementation of advanced nursing roles. A key issue are the attitudes of other healthcare professionals involved in care processes. However, a comprehensive and valid instrument to measure these attitudes is missing.

Purpose: To develop a questionnaire measuring attitudes of physicians and nurses towards advanced nursing roles in acute care.

Methods: The development process is based on Lynn’s methodology (Lynn, 1986) and consists of four steps. First, a comprehensive literature search is conducted, identifying studies that address attitudes of healthcare professionals towards advanced nursing roles in different care settings. Due to the early stage of development in Germany, nurses with any academic degree are included. Second, based on the results, domains and items are identified and a first draft of the questionnaire is developed. Third, 10 experts with practical experience and theoretical knowledge concerning Advanced Nursing Practice evaluate the first draft regarding its relevance, clarity and completeness. Content validity indices at the domain- and item-level are calculated. Fourth, a second version of the questionnaire is developed and re-evaluated by 10 healthcare professionals regarding its comprehensibility and plausibility.

Results: The first draft of the questionnaire includes the domains “general perceptions” (6 items), “knowledge and role clarity” (3 items), “accepted activities and responsibilities” (29 items), “qualification requirements” (2 items), “benefits and risks” (25 items), “perceived professional competence” (5 items), “collaboration” (9 items) and “enablers and inhibitors” (2 items). The first evaluation cycle is currently ongoing. At the conference, the full development process and final questionnaire will be presented.

Conclusion/significance: The new questionnaire offers the possibility to validly assess attitudes of members of the interdisciplinary team towards advanced nursing roles in acute care. The questionnaire is used in the ENROLE-acute project, which focuses on an advanced nursing role in acute care in Germany. The results serve as preparatory work to support the role development and implementation process within the project.