Simplified Chinese Trauma Advanced Practice Nurses' Core Competency Scale: A development and psychometric validation study

Background: The core competency of trauma advanced practice nurses (APNs) is directly related to the quality of trauma nursing work. Objectives: To develop an instrument to measure trauma APNs' core competency and examine its psychometric properties. Design: A cross-sectional psychometric validation study. Participants: A total of 762 trauma nurses recruited from several tertiary hospitals in 14 different provinces of China between June 2023 and May 2024 provided valid data for analysis. Methods: The Simplified Chinese Trauma Advanced Practice Nurses' Core Competency Scale (TAPNCCS-SC) was developed through five steps. Step 1) Creation of the operational definition: Based on the onion model, an operational definition of core competencies for trauma nurses is proposed. Step 2) Item generation: Based on the theoretical model, literature review, semi-structured interviews, and Delphi consultation, a preliminary scale was developed. Step 3) Item content validation: 6 experts reviewed items for content validity; Step 4) Pilot study: 21 nurses were selected to test the readability of the preliminary scale; and Step 5) Psychometric evaluation: Item analysis, content validity, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, convergent validity, internal consistency reliability, and half-reliability were conducted. Results: The TAPNCCS-SC consists of 34 items and three dimensions (knowledge and skills, professional competencies, and occupational qualities). The explained variance of the 3-factor was 81.86 %. The CFA showed an acceptable-fitting 3-factor model (chi 2/df = 3.653, RMSEA = 0.088, SRMR = 0.402, CFI = 0.920, IFI = 0.920, and TLI = 0.914). For convergent validity, AVE was 0.784-0.804 and CR was 0.974-0.980. The internal consistency and split-half reliability for the total scale were 0.991 and 0.945, respectively. The I-CVI ranged from 0.83 to 1. Conclusions: The proposed scale exhibits high reliability and validity and is suitable for assessing the core competency of trauma APNs, which can help nursing managers plan relevant training and enhance trauma care competency.