Date of Award

Spring 8-1-2004

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Josh Powers

Second Advisor

John Moore

Third Advisor

Ann Marriner Tomey

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to construct a valid and reliable comprehensive instrument entitled the Clinical Education Inventory (CEI) that measures nursing students' perceptions of clinical nursing education. The comprehensive instrument developed during this study evaluates multiple facets of clinical nursing education and reduces the need to survey the students using several tools each semester. Ill The method for this study was adapted from the work ofDeVellis (1991) for scale development. Item generation was optimized through requesting existing tools from nursing programs across the United States. Thirteen programs contributed 34 tools. After the review by the expert panel for content validity, the pilot instrument was administered to 457 undergraduate nursing students at nine nursing programs in the Midwest. Principal component analysis was used to verify construct validity. A four-factor model was hypothesized to support the subconstructs of clinical nurse educator, clinical course design, learning environments, and general clinical self-efficacy. The SPSS results revealed a three-factor solution. Fifteen items loaded on Factor I: Nurse Educator, and yielded an eigenvalue of 18.036 with 56.36% of the variance. Eight items loaded on Factor II: Competency Development, and had an eigenvalue of 2.130, which accounted for 6.66% of the variance. Seven items loaded on Factor III: Student Self-Efficacy with an eigenvalue of 1.135, which was 3.55% of the variance. The Cronbach's coefficient alpha for Factor I was .97, while alpha for Factor II and Factor III were both .90. The length of the inventory was optimized with the removal of three items. One item was revised to more closely align with the factor labeled Nurse Educator. The Clinical Education Inventory (CEI) had an excellent overall instrument internal consistency (alpha= .98).

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