Mokken scaling of the Caring Dimensions Inventory (CDI-25)

Aims and objectives. To validate a Turkish version of the Caring Dimensions Inventory in a group of Turkish nursing students. Background. There are no studies about how nurses or nursing students perceive caring in nursing in Turkey. There is also no valid and reliable instrument in Turkey for evaluating caring in nursing. Design. Descriptive study design. Methods. Using a convenience sample of nursing students (n=266), standard forward-back translation techniques were used with the Caring Dimensions Inventory. An expert panel considered the translations and provided content validation. A final version of the Caring Dimensions Inventory was tested with 10 nursing students, and we found no difficulties with the items in the instrument. Mokken Scaling analysis of the Caring Dimensions Inventory was used. Results. A range of psychosocial and professional/technical items was included in the Mokken scale with 'Providing privacy for a patient' as the most endorsed (mean=4•66) item and 'Being with a patient during a clinical procedure' being the least endorsed (mean=3•87). There is a tendency for the most endorsed items to be psychosocial with the professional/technical items being less endorsed, with the exception of the least endorsed item 'Being with a patient during a clinical procedure' which is a psychosocial item. Conclusion. The Turkish version of the Caring Dimensions Inventory is a reliable instrument for measuring nurses' perceptions about caring. Relevance to clinical practice. The results using the Caring Dimensions Inventory will help to identify how caring in nursing is perceived by nursing students in Turkey. Repeating this study in different groups such as working nurses will help to determine nurses who work in clinical settings perceive caring in nursing.