Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Thai Clinical Nurses’ Change Agent Competency Scale
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60099/prijnr.2026.276894Keywords:
Change agent\, Clinical nurses, Competency, Instrument development, Psychometric testingAbstract
Change agent competency is necessary for clinical nurses to manage and lead change by improving the quality of care in nursing practices. It is crucial to assess the change agent competency of clinical nurses. However, change agent competency is specific to the country context, and there is no tool to assess this competency in Thai clinical nurses. Thus, this study aimed to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Thai Clinical Nurses’ Change Agent Competency Scale following DeVellis and Thorpe’s seven-step guideline across two phases. Phase I involved synthesizing change theory, findings from a prior qualitative study on nurses’ perceptions of change agent competency, and results from a comprehensive literature review. This process resulted in a preliminary framework comprising seven domains and 90 items. In Phase II, five experts conducted content review and pretesting of the initial instrument, resulting in an 81-item scale that demonstrated acceptable content validity and internal consistency. For the field test, psychometric evaluation, and assessment of social desirability bias, a sample of 234 clinical nurses from eight university hospitals across four regions of Thailand was used to establish construct validity and reliability.
Exploratory factor analysis revealed seven factors with 50 items: collaboration, communication, assessment and opportunity recognition, information management, improving quality of work, planning and evaluation, and goal-directed persistence and explaining 65.84% of the total variance. No social desirability bias was detected. Contrasted-group analysis also supported construct validity. The overall internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) of test-retest reliability was acceptable. In conclusion, the Thai Clinical Nurses’ Change Agent Competency Scale demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability. This instrument can be used to assess the change agent competency of clinical nurses in Thailand and may also apply to nurses working in similar contexts.
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