Global assessment instrument for quality of nursing doctoral education with a research focus: Validity and reliability study

Abstract

Objectives: This study was designed to assess the content and construct validity and reliability of the Quality of Nursing Doctoral Education (QNDE) instrument for nursing doctoral programmes with a research focus. Design: A cross-sectional, survey study. Settings: Using Qualtrics survey, the research team sent emails to potential participants providing a link to the study and the QNDE instrument. Participants: A total of 234 faculty and doctoral students participated: 17 faculty from 14 countries in the first stage; 111 faculty and 106 doctoral students from 20 countries in the second stage. Methods: The content validity, internal consistency reliability, and construct validity of the four domains (program, faculty, resources, and evaluation) of the QNDE were examined in two stages. Data were collected from purposive samples of faculty and students between June 2018 and March 2019. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in ordinal scale using robust weighted least square mean and variance (WLSMV) adjusted estimator in MPlus 8. Results: Content validity of the items in the four domains was accepted when the item showed content validity (I-CVI > 0.78). Internal consistency reliability in four domains was computed using Cronbach's alpha, alpha = 0.88 to 0.97. Construct validity of the QNDE was established by confirmatory factor analysis based on model fit statistics. Factor loading coefficients for all items in each domain were statistically significant (>0.5; p < .001). Conclusions: Participation of 234 faculty and doctoral students from 20 countries on four continents confirmed content validity, internal consistency reliability, and construct validity of the QNDE instrument. These findings support the credibility of this revised QNDE instrument for assessing the quality of nursing doctoral education with a research focus. This is a significant step forward in enhancing the capability for evaluating doctoral programmes.