Factors affecting knowledge transfer from continuing professional education to clinical practice: Development and psychometric properties of a new instrument

Despite the emphasis placed on the implementation of continuing professional education programs in Iran, researchers or practitioners have not developed an instrument for assessing the factors that affect the knowledge transfer from such programs to clinical practice. The aim of this study was to design and validate such instrument for the Iranian context. The research used a three-stage mix method. In the first stage, in-depth interviews with nurses and content analysis were conducted, after which themes were extracted from the data. In the second stage, the findings of the content analysis and literature review were examined, and preliminary instrument options were developed. In the third stage, qualitative content validity, face validity, content validity ratio, content validity index, and construct validity using exploratory factor analysis was conducted. The reliability of the instrument was measured before and after the determination of construct validity. Primary tool instrument initially comprised 53 items, and its content validity index was 0.86. In the multi-stage factor analysis, eight questions were excluded, thereby reducing 11 factors to five and finally, to four. The final instrument with 43 items consists of the following dimensions: structure and organizational climate, personal characteristics, nature and status of professionals, and nature of educational programs. Managers can use the Iranian instrument to identify factors affecting knowledge transfer of continuing professional education to clinical practice.