Abstract
Mental health nurses are struggling to describe their nursing identity as professional discipline in a changing mental health care. Measuring nurse‐sensitive patient outcomes and demonstrating nursing’s effect(s) experienced by patients contribute to (re)discover the specific nursing identity. However, a valid and reliable scale is currently lacking. The aim of this study was the development and psychometric evaluation of the Mental Health Nurse‐Sensitive Patient Outcome Scale (MH‐NURSE‐POS) for inpatient psychiatric hospital settings. This three‐staged study resulted in a scale capturing how inpatients experience the contribution of nurses in their treatment in psychiatric hospitals. First, a draft questionnaire was developed based on a literature review, an independent expert’s advice, and an experts panel. Second, the content validity was tested in a two‐round Delphi‐procedure and focus groups with patients. A pilot test, based on cognitive interviews, confirmed the feasibility of the questionnaire. Third, the psychometric properties of the mental health nurse‐sensitive patient outcomes were determined in a sample of 353 patients. The cross‐sectional study included a convenience sample of five psychiatric hospitals (Belgium). The factor structure (Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0.924; Bartlett’s test of sphericity χ
2 = 4162.537; df = 231; P < 0.001), convergent validity by the Individualized Care Scale (Pearson correlation 0.660; P < 0.001), and reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.854) were evaluated. The factor analysis resulted in a four‐factor solution representing growth, expression, control, and motivation. The Mental Health Nurse‐Sensitive Patient Outcome Scale is a valid and reliable tool to measure the effectiveness of mental health nurses from the patient perspective.