[Development and Validation of the Outpatient Nurses Communication Behavior Inventory].

Abstract

Background: Outpatient clinics in medical centers are the most common location where people seek medical treatment. Because they must provide patients with treatment information in a timely manner, good communication skills are a key competency for outpatient nurses. However, the tools available for communication behavior assessment are general and rarely tailored for outpatient settings.

Purpose: The purpose was to develop a communication behavior inventory for outpatient nurses and to examine its reliability and validity.

Methods: During phase one, the authors conducted a literature search and synthesis, using the findings to develop the Outpatient Nurses Communication Behavior Inventory. During phase two, two expert validation rounds were conducted to confirm content validity. During phase three, 220 licensed outpatient nurses were recruited from a medical center in northern Taiwan to complete the instrument (December 2018 - January 2019.) The construct validity and internal consistency of the inventory were evaluated.

Results: The literature search and synthesis identified six domains of communication, including connect, introduce, communicate, ask, respond, and exit. A total of 25 items were generated. Following the two expert panel validation rounds, the six domains remained but the inventory items were reduced to 21. Both item-content validity index and scale-level content validity index were 1.0. In phase three, the results of the confirmatory factor analysis retained six factors with a total of 16 items. Model three showed that the inventory demonstrated goodness of fit (Χ ² = 155.75, p < .001, RMSEA = .06, GFI = .92, AGFI = .87, NNFI = .97, NFI = .95, Model AIC = 253.75). Internal consistency was demonstrated with a Cronbach's α of .89.

Conclusions / implications for practice: The Outpatient Nurses Communication Behavior Inventory exhibits good reliability and validity and may be used to assess outpatient nurses' communication behaviors and as a basis for education. The six CICARE (connect, introduce, communicate, ask, respond and exit) domains may be utilized to remind outpatient nurses to demonstrate effective communication consistently, promote outpatient nurses' communication with patients, and improve quality of care.