A cultural adaptation study of nursing informatics competency scale

Objective: The objective of this study is to examine the factor structure, internal consistency reliability and responsiveness of an instrument related to the informatics competency of nurses. Background: Informatics is a scientific discipline that needs to be integrated into nursing practice. There is no current and valid tool to measure the informatics competency of nurses in Turkey. Design: This study has a methodological design. Methods: The Self-Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competency Scale-18 was used to collect data. The original scale was translated into Turkish in a process of forward and back-translation. Data were collected in a setting of 190 respondents with a random subsample in a hospital. Internal reliability was tested using Cronbach's alpha. The factor structure of the instrument was determined through exploratory factor analysis. Factorial invariance was tested in a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. Results: Exploratory analysis with varimax rotation extracted three factors comprising 18 items that explained 62.1 % of the variance: applied computer skills (alpha=.91), role (alpha=.67) and basic computer skills (alpha=.77). Conclusion: The current version of the instrument is well grounded in the theoretical framework of informatics competence in nursing practice.