Development and Psychometric Evaluation of a Scale to Measure Innovation in Clinical Nursing Education

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed to develop and validate a scale to measure innovation in clinical nursing education.

Background: Existing tools for measuring innovation in clinical nursing education often have limitations, capturing only partial aspects of innovation and typically focusing on specific cultural contexts and general employee populations rather than nursing students. Given the specific educational and clinical environment of Iran, a context-appropriate tool is necessary to accurately assess innovation among its nursing students.

Methods: This methodological study involved the design and validation of an innovation measurement tool for clinical education in nursing students in Iran. The tool's development and validation process occurred between December 2023 and July 2024. To assess the tool's validity, face, content and construct validity were examined, along with reliability using internal consistency and stability methods.

Results: The study yielded a 19-item tool with favourable validation characteristics which explained 61.49% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega coefficients were 0.794 and 0.792, respectively, indicating good internal consistency. The intra-cluster correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.997, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.995-0.999, suggesting high stability.

Conclusion: The developed tool provides a reliable and valid instrument for measuring innovation in the clinical education of nursing students. This study contributes to the field by offering researchers, educators and clinical trainers a foundation for establishing an innovation measurement system tailored to Iranian nursing students.

Keywords: diffusion of innovation; educational measurement; nursing; nursing education research; psychometrics; students.