Development and validation of an instrument to measure nurses' compassion competence

AimTo develop and psychometrically validate the Compassion Competence Scale.BackgroundCompassion is a vital asset in the nursing profession; thus, it is necessary to develop a suitable instrument for assessment.MethodsThe 49-item preliminary instrument was developed using concept analysis (hybrid model). Content and face validity were confirmed by 10 experts and 10 nurses, respectively, and the number of items was reduced to 18. The tool was tested on 660 nurses working at three tertiary hospitals in South Korea in 2013.ResultsWe selected 17 items for the final scale and extracted three factors (variance explained: 55.9%): communication, sensitivity, and insight. Correlations with the Emotional Competence Scale (.68), Compassionate Love Scale (.62), and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (.41) supported the scale's convergent validity. The reliability (Cronbach's α and test–retest reliability) was acceptable.ConclusionsThe Compassion Competence Scale is a simple, effective screening tool for identifying compassion competence among nurses.