Background: Surgical conscience is a concept well known to perioperative nurses, yet it is rarely studied. The purpose of this study was to develop and psychometrically validate an original instrument called the Surgical Conscience Scale with perioperative nurses. Methods: The Surgical Conscience Scale was designed after a review of the literature, the creation of a concept analysis, content validity, and pilot testing. Validity was explored by an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with separate groups of participants. Results: EFA results explained 55% of the variance with three factors: Foundational Components, Barriers to Surgical Conscience Action, and Required Attributes. The CFA findings did not support goodness-of-fit indices in total; however, a valid and reliable subscale was discovered that measures barriers to using one's surgical conscience. This six-item scale, now referred to as the Barriers to Surgical Conscience Action Scale, had all six items of this factor (.734, .754, .806, .689, and .573) with strong loadings (>.5). Additionally, a good reliability coefficient of the subscale (α = .874) supports the recommendation to use this subscale on its own to measure barriers of surgical conscience. Conclusion: The use of the Barriers to Surgical Conscience Action Scale can promote awareness about the harmful consequences of failed action on behalf of perioperative nurses and help promote proficient surgical conscience usage.
Keywords: barriers to surgical conscience action; exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis; nursing; operating room; perioperative nursing; surgical conscience.
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