<p>Caring relationships established between nurse managers and staff nurses promote positive work environments. However, research about staff nurses’ perceptions of nurse manager caring behaviors is limited. A 94-item Caring Assessment Tool-Administration (CAT-adm<sup>©</sup>) was developed to measure staff nurses’ perceptions of nurse managers’ caring behaviors; however, it lacked robust psychometric testing. This study was undertaken to establish the CAT-adm<sup>©</sup> survey as a reliable and valid tool to measure staff nurses’ perceptions of nurse managers’ caring behaviors. </p><p> The Quality-Caring Model<sup>®</sup> (QCM<sup>®</sup>) served as the theoretical framework. Specific aims were to 1) evaluate construct validity of the CAT-adm<sup>©</sup> survey by describing factors that account for variance in staff nurses' perceptions of nurse manager caring, 2) estimate internal consistency, and 3) conduct item reduction analysis. Four research questions were: 1) Will the factor structure of observed data fit an 8-factor solution? 2) What is the internal consistency reliability of the CAT- adm<sup>©</sup>? 3) What items can be reduced while maintaining an acceptable factor structure? and 4) What are staff nurses’ perceptions of nurse manager caring behaviors? </p><p> A cross-sectional descriptive design was used. A sample of 703 staff nurses from Midwestern, Midatlantic and Southern Regions of the U.S. completed the CAT-adm<sup>©</sup> survey electronically. Analysis included Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), univariate analysis, and descriptive statistics. CFA did not support an 8-factor solution. EFA supported a two-factor solution and demonstrated significant shared variance between the two factors. This shared variance supported a one-factor solution that could conceptually be labeled <i>Caring Behaviors</i>. Random selection reduced the scale to 25-items while maintaining a Cronbach’s Alpha of .98. Using the new 25-item scale, the composite score mean of staff nurses’ perceptions of nurse manager caring behaviors indicated a moderately high level of caring. Suggestions for nursing administration, nurse manager practice, leadership, education and for future research were given. </p><p> The new 25-item CAT-adm<sup>©</sup> survey has acceptable reliability and validity. The 25-item CAT-adm<sup>©</sup> survey provides hospital administrators, nurse managers, and researchers with an instrument to collect valuable information about the caring behaviors used by nurse managers in relationship with staff nurses. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10133766 |
| Date | 07 July 2016 |
| Creators | Wolverton, Cheryl Lynn |
| Publisher | Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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