Development and validation of an instrument to measure nurses' compassion competence

Aim: To develop and psychometrically validate the Compassion Competence Scale. Background: Compassion is a vital asset in the nursing profession; thus, it is necessary to develop a suitable instrument for assessment. Methods: The 49-item preliminary instrument was developed using concept analysis (hybrid model). Content and face validity were confirmed by 10 experts and 10 nurses, respectively, and the number of items was reduced to 18. The tool was tested on 660 nurses working at three tertiary hospitals in South Korea in 2013. Results: We selected 17 items for the final scale and extracted three factors (variance explained: 55.9%): communication, sensitivity, and insight. Correlations with the Emotional Competence Scale (.68), Compassionate Love Scale (.62), and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (.41) supported the scale's convergent validity. The reliability (Cronbach's α and test-retest reliability) was acceptable. Conclusions: The Compassion Competence Scale is a simple, effective screening tool for identifying compassion competence among nurses.