title: Psychometric performance of the English language six-item Caring Behaviours Inventory in an acute care context.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric performance of the six-item Caring Behaviours Inventory in a sample of Australian acute hospital inpatients.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Caring is significant for nursing, and exploring the prevalence of staff-caring behaviours is imperative for high-quality acute care. There is a need for psychometrically sound scales that measures caring in acute care, without imposing extensive respondent burden.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional survey design was used to distribute the six-item Caring Behaviours Inventory to an Australian sample of hospital inpatients (n = 210) in December 2012.
  
  
  METHODS
  Psychometric evaluation included item performance, construct validity and internal consistency reliability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The six-item Caring Behaviours Inventory had satisfactory psychometric performance as evidenced by normally distributed scores, a uni-dimensional structure explaining 65% of variance in data, a total Cronbach's α of 0·89 and corrected item-total correlations between 0·51-0·82.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The six-item Caring Behaviours Inventory had satisfactory estimates of validity and reliability when tested in an Australian sample of acute hospital inpatients. The tool contributes to the literature by being a brief and nonburdensome alternative with seemingly strong psychometric properties to be used in future measures of caring in nursing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The six-item Caring Behaviours Inventory provides a psychometrically tested fundament for reflective clinical discussions on how nurse behaviours facilitate or impede patient experiences of caring. This can benefit quality development in clinical practice as being in tune with patient experiences and expectations is fundamental to high quality services and patient satisfaction.
authors.affiliation: Austin Health Clinical School of Nursing, La Trobe University, Heidelberg, Vic., Australia.|Umea University, Umea, Sweden.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Edvardsson
authors.affiliation: La Trobe University, Wodonga, Vic., Australia.
authors.forename: Anne-Marie
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Mahoney
authors.affiliation: Clinical Education Unit, Austin Health, Melbourne, Vic., Australia.
authors.forename: Juanita
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hardy
authors.affiliation: La Trobe University, Wodonga, Vic., Australia.|Clinical Nursing Education, Austin Health, Melbourne, Vic., Australia.
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: McGillion
authors.affiliation: Austin Health, Melbourne, Vic., Australia.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McLean
authors.affiliation: Clinical Education Unit, Austin Health, Melbourne, Vic., Australia.
authors.forename: Frances
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pearce
authors.affiliation: Clinical Education Unit, Austin Health, Melbourne, Vic., Australia.
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Salamone
authors.affiliation: Austin Health Clinical School of Nursing, La Trobe University, Heidelberg, Vic., Australia.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Watt
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009736:Nursing Process; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014739:Victoria
keywords: caring; instrument development; measurement reliability; nursing; psychometrics; questionnaire