Development of Thai Nurses' Caring Behavior Scale

This study aimed to develop a Thai nurses' caring behavior scale and test its psychometric properties. Construction of the Thai Nurses' Caring Behavior Scale (TNCBS) consisted of two phases. Phase I involved identifying the meaning and dimensions of Thai nurses' caring behaviors; generating an item pool; providing the format for measurement; review of items for content validity by experts; testing for internal consistency and stability; and, examining face validity. Information from these activities lead to development of a 63 item instrument, consisting of 6 dimensions (effective communication; respect; support; being with; doing for; and, utilizing professional knowledge and skills), that used a 4 point Likert-like format response pattern. Phase II involved testing the psychometric properties of the TNCBS. Seven hundred and fifty eight professional nurses from 10 institutions, including one university teaching hospital, two regional hospitals, three general hospitals and four community hospitals, responded to the 63 item scale. Explanatory factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to analyze the scale's construct validity and found to be acceptable. Due to redundancy of some items, the final version of the TNCBS was reduced to 57 items. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the overall scale was 0.98 and that of the six subscales was 0.86 to 0.93. The results indicated acceptable validity and reliability of the final version of the scale.