Translation, Cultural Adaptation, Validity, and Internal Consistency of the Greek Version of the Individual Workload Perceptions Scale-Revised

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The working environment in hospitals has been characterized as very important for the improvement of the provided care and the nurses' job satisfaction. The aim of the current study was translation and cultural adaptation of the Individual Workload Perceptions Scale-Revised (IWPS-R) as well as the investigation of the validity and internal consistency of the scale. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study involving 365 Greek nurses from two large hospitals in Athens, Greece. Nurses completed the Individual Workload Perceptions Scale-Revised, which is a self-administered questionnaire consisting of 29 items on a five-point Likert-type scale. For the translation, the scale was first translated into the Greek language (forward translation) and then into the English language (backward translation) and culturally adapted. For the study of the construct validity, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed, while the criterion of the convergent validity was between the five factors of the scale. To study the reliability, the method of test-retest was performed while Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to study the internal consistency of the scale. Data analysis was performed via the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 21.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). RESULTS: According to the exploratory factor analysis, the Greek version of the Individual Workload Perceptions Scale-Revised consists of five factors (Manager Support, Peer Support, Unit Support, Workload, and Intent to Stay) explaining 51.4% of the total variance. From the confirmatory factor analysis, the model was equivalent to the original factorial structure of the IWPS-R. Τhe convergent validity revealed a positive correlation between all the domains of the scale (p < 0.001). The test-retest method showed that there are no significant differences between the first and the second measurements (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.990, p < 0.001). The internal consistency was very good (Cronbach's alpha coefficient = 0.878). CONCLUSIONS: The IWPS-R is a reliable and valid instrument for Greek nurses to measure the perceptions of the nursing working environment.