Understanding and measuring nurses’ professionalism: Development and validation of the Nurses’ Professionalism Inventory
Naoko Ichikawa, Noriko Yamamoto‐Mitani, Yukari Takai, Makoto Tanaka, Yukie Takemura
Abstract
AIMS: To develop a self-report assessment inventory to evaluate nurses' professionalism and test its validity and reliability. BACKGROUND: Professionalism is essential for nurses' development. To promote professionalism, evaluation indices must be developed. METHODS: The Nurses' Professionalism Inventory (NPI) was constructed through a literature review and interviews with expert nurses and other medical personnel. An anonymized cross-sectional survey that included this inventory was administered to 5,739 nurses in hospitals throughout Japan. RESULTS: A total of 4,183 (72.8%) questionnaires were returned, of which 3,655 (63.7%) with valid responses were used for further analyses. The Nurses' Professionalism Inventory consists of five subscales containing 28 items: (a) accountability, (b) self-improvement, (c) professional attitude, (d) advancement of the nursing profession and (e) professional membership. The internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha) ranged from 0.84 to 0.90. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that this five-factor structure had good fit. The test-retest intraclass correlations were consistently greater than 0.6. CONCLUSIONS: The Nurses' Professionalism Inventory is valid and reliable. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The Nurses' Professionalism Inventory could be used to evaluate changes in nurses' professionalism and programmes designed to promote nurses' professionalism.