Development and psychometric testing of the EverCare Nurse Practitioner Role and Activity Scale (ENPRAS).
OBJECTIVE
To develop and test an instrument measuring the frequency of the performance of role activities by EverCare nurse practitioners (NPs), who provide primary care to nursing home residents.


METHODS
One hundred thirty-one EverCare Nurse Practitioner Role and Activity Scale (ENPRAS) activities were identified through telephone interviews (n= 11), participant observation (n= 5), and a focus group (n= 4).


CONCLUSIONS
Two content validity tests (n= 11; n= 15) (Content Validity Index > or = .78 for all retained items) and internal consistency reliability testing (n= 127; Cronbach's alpha = .78-.96) yielded 99 activities arranged in six role subscales-Collaborator, Clinician, Care Manager/Coordinator, Counselor, Communicator/Cheerleader, and Coach/Educator.


CONCLUSIONS
The ENPRAS can be used to measure similarities and differences in NP practice activities performed by EverCare NPs working at different EverCare program sites and to compare practice activities performed by EverCare NPs and other NPs. The EverCare program is sponsored by United Health Care, which leads the field in collaborative NP/MD primary care in nursing homes. Future studies should be directed toward testing the generalizability of the ENPRAS with NPs working in other collaborative models, as well as NPs in noncollaborative models of care delivery in the long-term care setting.
Abdallah
Lisa
L
School of Health and Environment at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA. lisa_abdallah@uml.edu
Fawcett
Jacqueline
J
Kane
Robertl
R
Dick
Karen
K
Chen
Jie
J
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009722:Nurse Practitioners; D024802:Nurse's Role; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009735:Nursing Homes; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D000078329:Workforce