Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this study is to develop a measurement tool for professional image to determine the perception of nurses.

METHODS

This methodological study was conducted on a total of 569 nurses who worked at hospitals affiliated with Istanbul Fatih Association of Public Hospitals, Turkish Public Hospitals Institution, between August and December 2013. The whole sample comprised of volunteers selected through simple random sampling. Data were collected via two instruments, namely the Descriptive Form and the Scale for the Image of Nursing Profession. Data analysis involved Lawshe’s CVR, the KMO coefficient, Bartlett’s test of sphericity, Principal Components Analysis, Factor Rotation, Cronbach’s Alpha, the Pearson correlation coefficient, an independent samples t-test, numbers, percentages, arithmetic mean scores.

RESULTS

The results indicated that the scale had 42 items measured with a five-point Likert-type scale. The items were grouped under six factors, namely professional qualities, working conditions, gender, education, professional status, and appearance. The factors had factor loadings ranging from 23.003% to 5.445%, and they accounted for 63.59% of the total variance. The scale had a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.88. The coefficients for each of the factors varied between 0.82 and 0.96. The analysis of the items indicated that item-total correlations and item-rest correlations were significant (p<0.001) and that all items and factors were distinguishing. The test-retest analysis (N=70) revealed that there were significant correlations (p<0.001) between the first and second administrations in terms of the scores in items and factors.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The results suggest that the Scale for the Image of Nursing Profession is valid and reliable and that it can be safely used for the identification of attitudes towards the image of nursing.