Development and psychometric testing of the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher evaluation scale (CLES+T): the Spanish version.

BACKGROUND The Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher scale is a reliable and valid instrument to evaluate the quality of the clinical learning process in international nursing education contexts. OBJECTIVES This paper reports the development and psychometric testing of the Spanish version of the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher scale. DESIGN Cross-sectional validation study of the scale. SETTING 10 public and private hospitals in the Alicante area, and the Faculty of Health Sciences (University of Alicante, Spain). PARTICIPANTS 370 student nurses on clinical placement (January 2011-March 2012). METHODS The Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher scale was translated using the modified direct translation method. Statistical analyses were performed using PASW Statistics 18 and AMOS 18.0.0 software. A multivariate analysis was conducted in order to assess construct validity. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to evaluate instrument reliability. RESULTS An exploratory factorial analysis identified the five dimensions from the original version, and explained 66.4% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the factor structure of the Spanish version of the instrument. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the scale was .95, ranging from .80 to .97 for the subscales. CONCLUSION This version of the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher scale instrument showed acceptable psychometric properties for use as an assessment scale in Spanish-speaking countries.