Development and Psychometric Assessment of the Undergraduate Nursing Student Academic Satisfaction Scale (UNSASS)

Background and Purpose: To examine the psychometric properties of a newly developed instrument: The Undergraduate Nursing Student Academic Satisfaction Scale (UNSASS). Methods: A self-report test-retest questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of 313 students enrolled in Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) program in Ontario, Canada. Results: The psychometric analysis yielded a 48-item multidimensional instrument. Validity testing revealed a content validity index (CVI) of .83. Factor analysis suggested a four-dimension scale with distinct factor loadings that all exceeded .4 and explained 50% of the variance. The scale had an overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .96 and a test-retest correlation coefficient of .88, indicating a highly reliable instrument. Conclusions: The newly developed instrument provides a tool to comprehensively measure the satisfaction of nursing students with the academic aspects of their nursing programs.