Protective Nursing Advocacy Scale

Nursing advocacy for patients is considered to be an important function of nursing practice. The research surrounding nursing advocacy is relatively new, with few psychometric instruments developed to measure nursing advocacy. The purpose of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the Protective Nursing Advocacy Scale (PNAS) and provide measures to support validity.\r\n The study design was a descriptive correlational design using a randomly selected sample of 419 medical-surgical registered nurses in the State of Texas. The data were collected using a mailed survey and the mailed survey included demographic data, the PNAS, a nursing ethics instrument, the Nursing Professional Values Scale Revised (NPVSR), and an existing nursing advocacy instrument, the Attitudes toward Patient Advocacy Scale (APAS). In addition, narrative responses to three open-ended questions were analyzed for category response frequency. The resulting dataset of PNAS items was analyzed for significance of PNAS scores among the demographic groups. The PNAS items were further analyzed using an exploratory factor analysis along with other psychometric descriptions of the data.\r\n The PNAS analysis resulted in the items loading onto four theoretically connected components, subsequently referred to as subscales. The overall reliability of the PNAS demonstrated an acceptable level of reliability, as did the four subscales. No significant differences were noted between mean total PNAS scores and the majority of the demographic data. Construct validity evidence was provided by exploratory factor analysis. Convergent validity evidence was supported by correlations of the PNAS scores and the APAS and NPVSR scores. Content analysis by an expert panel demonstrated an acceptable level of validity index. Narrative responses to open-ended questions help provide support for the items from the PNAS. The six PNAS items that did not load onto components or that were not theoretically connected need revision and piloting in a future version of this instrument. \r\n Implications for nursing include using with practicing nurses to improve their advocacy skills, which may help improve patient outcomes. Additional versions of the PNAS could be written to be used in the education of nursing students and for use by patients in evaluating the nurse’s advocacy ability.\r\n

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Grantor

The University of Texas Medical Branch

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Robert Gordon Hanks

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Regina Lederman

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Zhao Wu
• Robin Fleschler
• Ira Bernstein
• Darlene Martin

• patient advocacy
• nursing
• instrument
• advocacy

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the TDL web site by The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Dc Identifier Other

etd-11192008-125643

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utmb-ir.tdl.org:2152.3/265