Clinical learning environment, supervision and nurse teacher evaluation scale: psychometric evaluation of the Swedish version.
OBJECTIVE
This article is a report of the development and psychometric testing of the Swedish version of the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher evaluation scale.


BACKGROUND
To achieve quality assurance, collaboration between the healthcare and nursing systems is a pre-requisite. Therefore, it is important to develop a tool that can measure the quality of clinical education. The Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher evaluation scale is a previously validated instrument, currently used in several universities across Europe. The instrument has been suggested for use as part of quality assessment and evaluation of nursing education.


METHODS
The scale was translated into Swedish from the English version. Data were collected between March 2008 and May 2009 among nursing students from three university colleges, with 324 students completing the questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis was performed on the 34-item scale to determine construct validity and Cronbach's alpha was used to measure the internal consistency.


RESULTS
The five sub-dimensions identified in the original scale were replicated in the exploratory factor analysis. The five factors had explanation percentages of 60.2%, which is deemed sufficient. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the total scale was 0.95, and varied between 0.96 and 0.75 within the five sub-dimensions.


CONCLUSIONS
The Swedish version of Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher evaluation scale has satisfactory psychometric properties and could be a useful quality instrument in nursing education. However, further investigation is required to develop and evaluate the questionnaire.
Johansson
Unn-Britt
UB
Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital, Division of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and Sophiahemmet University College, Sweden. unn-britt.johansson@shh.se
Kaila
Päivi
P
Ahlner-Elmqvist
Marianne
M
Leksell
Janeth
J
Isoaho
Hannu
H
Saarikoski
Mikko
M
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005181:Faculty, Nursing / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006272:Health Facility Environment / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008611:Mentors; D008875:Middle Aged; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D011594:Psychometrics; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D013548:Sweden; D014175:Translating; D055815:Young Adult