The development and psychometric testing of a Disaster Response Self-Efficacy Scale among undergraduate nursing students

Disaster nurse education has received increasing importance in China. Knowing the abilities of disaster response in undergraduate nursing students is beneficial to promote teaching and learning. However, there are few valid and reliable tools that measure the abilities of disaster response in undergraduate nursing students. To develop a self-report scale of self-efficacy in disaster response for Chinese undergraduate nursing students and test its psychometric properties. Nursing students (N = 318) from two medical colleges were chosen by purposive sampling. The Disaster Response Self-Efficacy Scale (DRSES) was developed and psychometrically tested. Reliability and content validity were studied. Construct validity was tested by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability was tested by internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The DRSES consisted of 3 factors and 19 items with a 5-point rating. The content validity was 0.91, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.912, and the intraclass correlation coefficient for test-retest reliability was 0.953. The construct validity was good (χ2/df = 2.440, RMSEA = 0.068, NFI = 0.907, CFI = 0.942, IFI = 0.430, p < 0.001). The newly developed DRSES has proven good reliability and validity. It could therefore be used as an assessment tool to evaluate self-efficacy in disaster response for Chinese undergraduate nursing students.