Development and psychometric evaluation of nurses’ perception towards the gap between knowledge and practice

Abstract

Aim: The aim of the study was to develop a survey instrument and psychometrically evaluate nurses’ perceptions of the gap between knowledge and practice. Although the nursing literature has widely documented a gap between knowledge and practice, no instrument has been developed to measure this gap. Design: Psychometric analysis was done on 513 nurses working in different positions at two large hospitals in Jeddah City. Methods: Cronbach's alpha was used to determine the internal consistency and reliability of the research instrument, and a panel of experts evaluated the validity of the tool's content. Result: The content validity index computed from expert rankings was 0.89. Factor analysis yielded four major components: knowledge, practice, environment and learning. Cronbach's alpha indicated a high level of internal consistency and reliability for the component items. The newly developed scale will facilitate measuring nurses’ perceptions of the knowledge–practice gap in clinical settings.