title: Measuring clinical nurse performance: development of the King's Nurse Performance Scale.
abstract: The development of the King's Nurse Performance Scale to measure clinical nurse performance is described. Instrument construction was informed by the Slater Nursing Competencies Rating Scale [Wandelt, M. A. and Stewart, D. S. (1975) Slater Nursing Competencies Rating Scale. Appleton-Century Crofts, New York] together with key literature and the use of expert opinion. The instrument was utilised to observe the clinical performance of senior student nurses (n = 99) and data which were at the ordinal level were statistically analysed using a variety of non-parametric tests. Key findings of students' observed nursing practice are presented in a separate paper (While et al., unpublished document). Internal consistency testing of the King's Nurse Performance Scale using Cronbach's alpha coefficient revealed a promising alpha for the total instrument (r = 0.93). The subsection alphas indicated that further refinement may enhance the strength of the instrument as a tool for the measurement of performance in different domains of practice. The possible use of the Scale in the professional development of newly qualified nurses is suggested.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing Studies, King's College London, U.K.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fitzpatrick
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: While
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D006113:United Kingdom