title: Sexual abuse comfort scale: a scale to measure nurses' comfort to respond to sexual abuse in psychiatric populations.
abstract: The purpose of the present study was to further contribute to the psychometric evaluation of the Sexual Abuse Comfort Scale (SACS) in order to provide a standardized measure that would assess the impact of educational programmes on nurses' comfort to intervene with psychiatric clients regarding sexual abuse. This study was part of a larger multisite study conducted in four Canadian provinces, designed to assess the attitudes, beliefs, competencies and educational needs of psychiatric nurses who may work with clients who have been sexually abused. As part of the larger study, a self-administered survey was sent to 3532 psychiatric nurses employed in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia. The SACS, the Sexual Attitudes Scale (SAS), the Questionnaire Measure of Emotional Empathy (QMEE) and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (M-CDS) were included in the survey. The SACS was submitted for item analysis, factor analysis, hypothesis testing regarding construct validity and assessment of concurrent validity. Item analysis of the SACS resulted in a 30-item scale with a coefficient of 0.91, indicating an excellent level of reliability. Empirical evidence indicates that the SACS is a reliable and valid instrument that may be used for the effective evaluation of intervention programmes directed towards increasing clinical knowledge and competence related to sexual abuse.
authors.affiliation: Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: McCay
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gallop
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Austin
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bayer
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Peternelj-Taylor
mesh_terms: D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing / Q000592:standards*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000193:education*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*