Development and Psychometric Evaluation of Supportive Leadership Scales

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of 2 supportive leadership scales, the Charge Nurse Support Scale and the Unit Manager Support Scale, designed for long-term-care environments.These 6-item self-report scales were administered to 70 nursing staff and their internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, content validity,factor structure, and construct validity investigated. Content validity was established with the assistance of experts. Both scales were deemed reliable. As hypothesized, a significant relationship was found between the measure of how nursing staff related to residents and measures of charge nurses' supportive behaviours (r = .42, p = .05). Reliable and valid measures of supportive leadership could be developed for use in identifying the quality of support provided to staff in long-term-care environments.