title: A critical analysis of scales to measure the attitude of nurses toward spiritual care and the frequency of spiritual nursing care activities.
abstract: Quantitative studies have assessed nurses' attitudes toward and frequency of spiritual care [SC] and which factors are of influence on this attitude and frequency. However, we had doubts about the construct validity of the scales used in these studies. Our objective was to evaluate scales measuring nursing SC. Articles about the development and psychometric evaluation of SC scales have been identified, using, Web of Science, and CINAHL, and evaluated with respect to the psychometric properties and item content of the scales. Item content was evaluated by each of the five authors with respect to the following questions: Does the item (1) reflect a general opinion about SC instead of a personal willingness to offer SC; (2) reflect general psychosocial care instead of specific SC; (3) focus solely on religious care; (4) contain the words 'spiritual' (care/needs/health/strengths, etc.); and (5) contain multiple propositions, or have an unclear meaning? We found eight scales. Psychometric analysis of these scales was often meager and the items of all but one scale suffered from two or more of the five problems described above. This leads us to conclude that many quantitative results in this area are based on findings with questionable scales. Suggestions for improvements are provided.
authors.affiliation: Center for Psycho-Oncology, Helen Dowling Institute, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Garssen
authors.affiliation: Center for Psycho-Oncology, Helen Dowling Institute, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.|Department Anesthesiology, Pain and Palliative Care/Expertise Center for Palliative Care, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anne Frederieke
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Ebenau
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Visser
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Behavioral and Movement Sciences, Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Nicoline
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Uwland
authors.affiliation: Center for Psycho-Oncology, Helen Dowling Institute, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.|Department Anesthesiology, Pain and Palliative Care/Expertise Center for Palliative Care, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marieke
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Groot
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D011594:Psychometrics; D029181:Spirituality; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: nurse-patient interaction; nursing assessment; quantitative methods; religion; spirituality