Development and psychometric properties of the stressor scale for emergency nurses.

Introduction: Emergency department nurses are exposed to specific stressors and report higher stress levels than nurses in other hospital departments. This study aimed to develop and test the psychometric properties of a questionnaire-based instrument for identifying stressors for emergency department nurses.

Methods: The instrument's content and face validities were examined by five experts and nurses in emergency nursing field. The test-retest reliability was examined on 30 emergency department nurses. The construct validity, including an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis, was tested on 405 emergency department nurses. Cronbach's alpha values and intra-class coefficients were calculated.

Results: The instrument's content and face validities were satisfactory. The exploratory factor analysis provided a five-factor solution, whereas the confirmatory factor analysis provided a final four-factor solution with 25 items distributed among the factors Life and death situations, Patients' and families' actions and reactions, Technical and formal support, and Conflicts. The Cronbach's alpha values ranged from 0.89 to 0.93 per factor, and the intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.89, indicating good homogeneity and stability.

Conclusions: The instrument's content, face, and construct validities were satisfactory, and the internal consistency and test-retest reliability were good. This instrument can be useful in the management of emergency departments.