Validation Study of the Revised Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS): A Cross-Sectional Survey in Poland

Introduction: The use of a validated scale, Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS) to measure nurses' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care. Aim: The purpose of this study was to analyse selected psychometric properties of the Polish version of the SSCRS, among them the applicability of the dimensions of spiritual care in nursing, ie, spirituality, spiritual care, religiosity and personalized care, to Polish conditions. Methods: Poland-wide multicentre study with a cross-sectional validation design. The study was conducted between March and June 2019. Seven Polish Nursing Faculties accepted the invitation to participate in the study. A representative sample of 853 nurses enrolled in MSc (postgraduate) programs in nursing participated. After translation and cultural adaption of the SSCRS, the instrument underwent a full psychometric evaluation of its construct validity using (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis), internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha and correlation analysis), reliability (test-retest analysis), known-group validity (Student's t-test) analysis. Results: The exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the Polish version of the SSCRS was a three-factor model with Activity-centred spiritual care (9 items), Emotional support-centred spiritual care (5 items) and Religiosity (3 items) domains. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole scale was 0.902, and the alpha values for the individual domains were 0.898, 0.873 and 0.563, respectively. The three domains mentioned above seemed to provide a comprehensive understanding of spiritual care perceived subjectively by Polish MSc in nursing students. Conclusion: This study demonstrated a substantial degree of similarity in the selected psychometric characteristics of the Polish version of SSCRS and the original scale.

Automated summary

This study aimed to analyze the psychometric properties of the Polish version of SSCRS, a validated scale to measure nurses' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care. The results showed that the Polish version had good reliability and validity, indicating its applicability to the Polish nursing context.