Development and psychometric testing of a scale measuring caring behaviors for healthcare students and providers

Figures & data

Figure 1. Scree plot for factor analysis of the CBS-HSP.

Table 1. Rotated factor loadings and Cronbach’s alphas for the CBS-HSP

Item	Factor 1: Support & Attentiveness	Factor 2: Professional Knowledge & Skills	Factor 3: Gratifying Needs & Responsiveness	Factor 4: Confidentiality & Trust
Factor 1: α = 0.934
60	0.802
90	0.798
81	0.794
88	0.792
93	0.791
104	0.780
103	0.760
64	0.757
63	0.756
58	0.756
73	0.734
Factor 2: α = 0.926
13		0.839
18		0.821
5		0.820
10		0.819
17		0.817
20		0.810
8		0.795
1		0.759
Factor 3: α = 0.910
51			0.851
50			0.831
43			0.816
44			0.795
42			0.791
57			0.725
68			0.717
Factor 4: α = 0.894
27				0.878
26				0.844
24				0.832
14				0.832
25				0.797
Eigenvalue	15.101	2.550	1.623	1.106
% of variance	48.714	8.226	5.236	3.566

Overall = 0.964; total variance explained is 65.742%

Table 2. Scale item statements and descriptive statistics on the CBS-HSP scale

Scale Item Descriptions	Mean	S.D.
Factor 1: Support & Attentiveness	85.984	10.530
60. As a healthcare professional, no matter what happens, I would always give priority to patients.	7.83	1.170
90. As a healthcare professional, when talking to patients, I would look at them and smile sincerely.	7.75	1.293
81. As a healthcare professional, I would accompany patients in order to give them spiritual support.	7.99	1.157
88. As a healthcare professional, when patients need support, I would try to use words and actions to help them go through difficulties, for instance, accompanying patients and letting them know that I would be with them during their difficulties.	7.92	1.110
93. As a healthcare professional, I believe that a friendly relationship with patients would help them recover.	7.78	1.324
104. As a healthcare professional, I would put myself in the patients’ position to experience their pain or reactions.	7.80	1.239
103. As a healthcare professional, I would be able to understand how patients feel.	7.74	1.262
64. As a healthcare professional, I would express my concern to patients.	7.72	1.304
63. As a healthcare professional, I would praise patients to confirm their efforts. For example, I would tell patients, ‘You did a good job.’	7.88	1.250
58. As a healthcare professional, I would pay attention to patients’ complaints, no matter what the complaint is.	7.78	1.223
73. As a healthcare professional, I would try to help patients use their belief to support themselves as they go through the suffering of their disease.	7.79	1.231
Factor 2: Professional Knowledge & Skills	62.432	8.283
13. As a healthcare professional, I would try my best to use my professional knowledge, technology, and experience in medical, nursing, or healthcare practice to alleviate the symptoms of patients.	7.99	1.204
18. As a healthcare professional, I would monitor the progress of patients’ course of disease to examine the effectiveness of healthcare services.	7.85	1.281
5. As a healthcare professional, I would try my best to confirm that the patients’ healthcare plan is as they requested and meets its expected goals.	7.64	1.254
10. As a healthcare professional, I would try my best to assist my patients in making appropriate healthcare decisions.	7.69	1.287
17. As a healthcare professional, I would try my best to obtain patients’ healthcare history to create their healthcare plan.	7.79	1.250
20. As a healthcare professional, my routine professional healthcare service, combined with my relevant knowledge and experience, would help me provide professional service without difficulty.	7.87	1.228
8. As a healthcare professional, I would try my best to provide patients’ relevant healthcare information to healthcare teams in order to maintain the continuity of healthcare service.	7.70	1.330
1. As a healthcare professional, I would be able to identify the signs that patients’ conditions are beginning to deteriorate.	7.91	1.359
Factor 3: Gratifying Needs & Responsiveness	56.161	6.314
51. As a healthcare professional, I would try my best to provide patients and their families with relevant healthcare information regarding the patients’ disease in order to help them evaluate what kind of healthcare service they need.	8.04	1.098
50. As a healthcare professional, after helping patients complete their general physical examination (such as blood pressure) or physiological examination (such as electrocardiogram), I would try to actively inform them of the examination results or when they have to return to the hospital to see the examination report.	8.06	1.194
43. As a healthcare professional, when something goes wrong with patients’ healthcare, I would immediately report the situation to senior staff or relative professionals.	7.99	1.137
44. As a healthcare professional, when patients are uncomfortable or in pain, I would immediately try to help them alleviate their pain or discomfort.	7.92	1.136
42. As a healthcare professional, when patients are in need of being taken care of, I would try my best to meet their needs promptly.	7.92	1.118
57. As a healthcare professional, I would tell patients about their relevant examination, treatment, or healthcare service plans in order to let them be mentally prepared.	8.12	1.080
68. As a healthcare professional, I would be able to understand the needs of patients and provide appropriate healthcare services.	8.12	1.065
Factor 4: Confidentiality & Trust	41.414	4.484
27. As a healthcare professional, I would keep patients’ condition or personal privacy confidential.	8.39	1.000
26. As a healthcare professional, I would try to avoid unnecessary exposure of patients’ bodies during examination, treatments, or healthcare service by, for example, drawing curtains or covering patients’ bodies properly.	8.30	1.072
24. As a healthcare professional, I would treat patients as independent individuals.	8.27	1.066
14.As a healthcare professional, while making any healthcare decision, I think the opinions of patients and their families should always be taken into consideration.	8.35	1.013
25. As a healthcare professional, I think the relationship between patients and me should be based on mutual trust.	8.10	1.190

S.D. = Standard Deviation

Figure 2. CFA for the CBS-HSP scale.

Table 3. Model fit for the EFA-derived and CFA-derived CBS-HSP

	${\chi }^2/df$	GFI	CFI	TLI	RMSEA	90% RMSEA CI
EFA-derived Scale	2.720	0.774	0.900	0.891	0.083	[0.078, 0.089]
CFA-derived Scale	1.242	0.988	0.988	0.985	0.031	[0.021, 0.040]

Note: N = 248; χ2 = Chi-square; df = degree of freedom; GFI: goodness of fit index; CFI = comparative fit index; TLI = Tucker Lewis index; RMSEA = root mean square error of approximation; CI = Confidential Index.

Table 4. AVE (average variance extracted), Cronbach’s alphas, and composite alphas

AVE & Composite Alpha Factor	AVE	Cronbach’s Alpha – EFA-Derived Scale	Cronbach’s Alpha – CFA-Derived Scale	Composite Alpha – CFA-Derived Scale
1. Support and attentiveness	0.709	0.934	0.965	0.964
2. Professional knowledge and skills	0.668	0.926	0.944	0.941
3. Gratifying needs and responsiveness	0.620	0.910	0.923	0.919
4. Confidentiality and trust	0.541	0.894	0.866	0.854

Table 5. Discriminant validities of the CFA-derived CBS-HSP scale

Factor	1	2	3	4
1. Support and attentiveness	0.842
2. Professional knowledge and skills	0.548**	0.817
3. Gratifying needs and responsiveness	0.720**	0.817**	0.787
4. Confidentiality and trust	0.603**	0.653**	0.773**	0.735

The values shown in bold are the square root of AVE (√AVE)

The values shown with ** are the Pearson correlation coefficients.

**p < 0.001