The development and psychometric evaluation of the Ethical Issues Scale.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the Ethical Issues Scale (EIS), its conceptual development and psychometric evaluation, and its uses in determining how frequently nurses experience ethical issues in practice.


METHODS
The EIS was validated with a sample (N = 2,090) of New England registered nurses (RNs) currently in practice. The sample was randomly split into two approximately equal samples. The calibration sample was used to derive the underlying components; the validation sample was used to confirm the component structure.


METHODS
Psychometric analysis of the 35-item EIS included: (a) item analysis, (b) confirmatory principal components analysis (PCA), and (c) internal consistency reliability using Cronbach's alpha.


RESULTS
Three components (end-of-life-treatment issues, patient care issues, and human rights issues) were demonstrated, confirming the original conceptually-derived structure. The calibration sample accounted for 42.4% of initially extracted common variance; the validation sample accounted for 41.5% of initially extracted common variance.


CONCLUSIONS
The three EIS subscales had satisfactory internal consistency reliability and factorial validity for use as independent scales in future studies.
Fry
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Center for Nursing Research, School of Nursing, Boston College, 3rd Floor Cushing Hall, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3812, USA. frys@bc.edu
Duffy
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D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D009511:New England; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires