Development and psychometric properties of Clinical Learning Environment Scale for Chinese nursing students

Abstract

Abstract Objective To develop a clinical learning environment scale for Chinese nursing students and test its reliability and validity. Methods Based on Moos social environment theory, qualitative interviews and expert consultations were used to develop the pre-test version of the Chinese Nursing Students' Clinical Learning Environment Scale. With a convenience sampling method, 255 and 1582 Chinese nursing students were selected as the prediction and validation samples from December 2022 to March 2023. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to determine the final version of the scale and test its reliability and validity. Results The scale consisted of 19 items. Exploratory factor analysis extracted three characteristic roots in terms of goal oriented, interpersonal relation, and learning support, which explained 71.500% of the total variance. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that the GFI was 0.848, AGFI was 0.806, RMSEA was 0.090, RMR was 0.041, NFI was 0.910, IFI was 0.916, CFI was 0.916, PCFI was 0.798, and PNFI was 0.793. The reliability values of the three dimensions were 0.870, 0.858, and 0.943, respectively, and the convergent validity values were 0.574, 0.603, and 0.625, respectively. Conclusion The reliability and validity of the dimensions of the Chinese Nursing Students' Clinical Learning Environment Scale are acceptable, which can be used as a useful tool to measure the clinical learning environment of Chinese nursing students.