Process of translation and adaptation of the Nurse Professional Competence (NPC) Scale

Professional competence in nursing is of crucial importance for high quality care and patient related outcomes. A new instrument for measuring competence in nursing has been developed by a Swedish research group. The instrument is called the Nurse Professional Competence (NPC) Scale and is based on national guidelines, and the WHOs European Strategy for Nursing and Midwifery. The NPC Scale consists of 88 items distributed in eight competence areas, and measures self-reported professional competence. The target groups are nursing students at the point of graduation and registered nurses. As the NPC Scale has rendered great interest from researchers internationally, the NPC research group decided to translate the Scale into English to facilitate international use of the instrument. The aim of this article was to describe the translation process used to create an English version of the NPC Scale. This article describes the translation process from Swedish to English and its challenges. The translation process resulted in an English version of the NPC Scale ready for internationally usage.