title: [Helping relationship skills in nurses: the validation of a measurement instrument].
abstract: Considering the importance of assessing nurses' helping relationship skills, it was necessary to use reliable and context-adapted instruments. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Helping Relationship Skills Inventory (Inventário de Competências Relacionais de Ajuda, ICRA), by conducting reliability and validity studies to increase the level of confidence or accuracy of the data obtained using this instrument. This quantitative study was conducted on a sample of 690 nurses who worked in six hospitals and eight health centres in Portugal. The results indicate a multidimensional structure of helping relationship skills, divided into four different dimensions (generic, empathetic, communication and contact skills) with a positive correlation between them. Cronbach's alpha for each dimension was higher than .79, showing a good internal consistency of the items within each factor.
authors.affiliation: Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal. rosamelo@esenfc.pt
authors.forename: Rosa Cândida Carvalho Pereira
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: de Melo
authors.forename: Maria Júlia Paes
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Pedro Miguel Dinis
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Parreira
authors.forename: Manuela Maria Conceição
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Ferreira
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009729:Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires