Cent Eur J Nurs Midw 2021, 12(2):342-352 | DOI: 10.15452/cejnm.2021.12.0009

The factors affecting patient aggression scale: psychometric testing of a new tool

Martina Lepiešová, Ivan Farský, Mária Zanovitová, Juraj Čáp, Katarína Žiaková, Dominika Kalánková
Department of Nursing, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia

Aim: To report the development and psychometric testing of the Factors Affecting Patient Aggression Scale (the FAPAS), a new attitude scale constructed to measure nurses’ perception of miscellaneous factors in terms of their potential to increase the risk of patient aggression against nurses.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Methods: The study was conducted according to the STROBE checklist. Data were collected using the FAPAS between November 2014 and May 2015. Registered nurses (n = 1,220) from nine teaching hospitals across Slovakia were included in the study. Construct validity and reliability of the instrument were tested using SPSS 18.0.

Results: Resulting from the factor analysis, a six-factor structure was revealed. Six subscales representing specific groups of factors affecting patient aggression against nurses can be conditioned by Gender aspects, Situations of physical and emotional distress of a patient, Nurse-related factors, Factors of nursing shift organization, Patient-related factors, Factors of the nursing workplace environment. The Cronbach’s alpha of the instrument was 0.91, ranging from 0.63 to 0.88 for subscales.

Conclusion: Based on psychometric testing in the Slovak sociocultural context, the FAPAS showed acceptable reliability and construct validity and thus is considered a promising instrument for measuring nurses’ perception of miscellaneous factors of patient aggression.

Keywords: acute care, contributing factors, nurses, nurses’ perception, patient aggression, psychometric properties

Received: August 14, 2020; Revised: November 29, 2020; Accepted: March 3, 2021; Prepublished online: April 2, 2021; Published: June 4, 2021  Show citation

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Lepiešová M, Farský I, Zanovitová M, Čáp J, Žiaková K, Kalánková D. The factors affecting patient aggression scale: psychometric testing of a new tool. Central European Journal of Nursing and Midwifery. 2021;12(2):342-352. doi: 10.15452/cejnm.2021.12.0009.
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