The construct validity of a rating scale designed to assess spirituality and spiritual care.

A postal survey, containing a questionnaire and covering letter, was distributed to 1029 ward-based nurses, of all grades, in a Large NHS Trust in an attempt to establish how nurses perceived spirituality and spiritual care. A response rate of 55.3% (n = 549) was obtained. Part of the questionnaire contained "The Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale" (SSCRS) a newly constructed instrument to aid the investigation and measurement of Spirituality and Spiritual Care. Factor Analysis was performed in an attempt to establish construct validity and to identify any underlying associations between items in the scale. It suggested a 17-item instrument with four factor-based subscales: Spirituality, Spiritual Care, Religiosity and Personalised Care. The 17-item SSCRS demonstrated a reasonable level of internal consistency reliability, having a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.64. Confirmatory Factor Analysis is recommended in order to cross-validate and refine this new Rating Scale. Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.