Development and validation of a questionnaire to evaluate attitudes and beliefs of discrimination by nursing staff

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this study is to report on the development and initial psychometric testing of a questionnaire to investigate nurses’ discrimination attitudes and beliefs towards people of dif f erent ethnic origins. Materials and Methods: The initial stage involved the selection of the questions of the tool after a comprehensive evaluation of the relevant international literature and the tools used in previous related studies. The reliability (forward-backward translation) of the questions was assessed, along with the content, face, and structure. To conduct the study, which was carried out from 07/2021 to 01/2022 a sample consisting of 30 and 2,034 nurses and their assistants was used for the pilot and the fi nal research, respectively. Results: Given that the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) threshold value of 0.89 was achieved, the sample was considered suf f i cient and appropriate for factor analysis. A statistically signif i cant result (p<0.001) from Bartlett’s test indicated a substantial connection between the questions and conf i rmed that the data were suitable for factor analysis. Twenty statements altogether, with seven possible answers ranging from “totally disagree” to “completely agree,” were included in the questionnaire. For the questions, three distinct factors – communication, dif f i culties, and discrimination – were shown to account for 47.1% of the variability. Reliability analyzes showed satisfactory Cronbach alpha coef f i cient scores for all factors, ranging from 0.78 to 0.82. Conclusions: The current study demonstrates that the questionnaire we developed is a legitimate and trustworthy instrument for evaluating professional nurses’ discriminatory attitudes and beliefs toward individuals from various ethnic backgrounds. The questionnaire can be used to help design interventions to end discrimination, guarantee equitable access to healthcare services, and provide high-quality care for individuals from diverse backgrounds. It can also be used to identify the factors that inf l uence nurses’ attitudes and perceptions toward these patient populations.