The development and validation of the Person-centred Practice Inventory-Student instrument: A Modified Delphi Study

Background: Global health care policy and regulatory requirements indicate that nursing students must be prepared for person-centred practice. Despite this, there is no evidence of a theoretically derived instrument to measure students’ perceptions of person-centred practice.  

Objectives: To adapt the Person-centred Practice Inventory-Staff instrument for use with healthcare students and to test the adapted instrument.

Design: This study involved a two-phased, modified Delphi Technique. In Phase 1 students’ views about items in the Person-centred Practice Inventory-Staff were explored to gain consensus about items for inclusion in an adapted student version. In Phase 2, the psychometric properties of the adapted instrument were tested.

Setting: A UK university.

Participants: Pre-registration nursing students.

Methods: Phase 1 involved an iterative process including three focus groups (n=13) followed by Delphi surveys (Round 1: n=382; Round 2: n=144). Thematic analysis was used to analyse students’ comments and consensus percentages were calculated after each Delphi round. Phase 2 involved a survey using the adapted instrument (n=532). The measurement model was analysed using confirmatory factor analysis. 

Results: The results indicated stability in the measurement model with this sample. Item correlation scores were between 0.22-0.74 with no evidence of collinearity and factor loadings ranged from 0.44-0.86. Fit indices indicated goodness of fit between the observed data and the respective domains in the Person-centred Practice Framework (chi-squared to degrees of freedom ratio of <3, root mean square estimations of approximation 0.06 for all domains and between 0.05-0.07 at  90% confidence interval. Comparative fit index estimates ranged from 0.90-0.97).

Conclusion: This study provides initial validation of the Person-centred Practice Inventory-Student instrument which is offered as a measure of students’ perceptions of their person-centred practice. The instrument has utility in assessing the efficacy of curricula in preparing students as person-centred practitioners.