Keywords

Civic, Service-Learning, Social Responsibility, Undergraduate Nursing Students

 

Authors

  1. Nickitas, Donna M.
  2. Fealy, Gerard M.
  3. De Natale, Mary L.

Abstract

AIM: The aim was to develop an instrument to assess undergraduate nursing students' experience of service-learning to reveal benefits and identify service-learning as a professional value that leads to civic and social responsibility.

 

BACKGROUND: Service-learning is a teaching and learning approach that integrates academic learning with experiential community-centered foci. It provides structured opportunities for reflection on broader social and cultural dimensions of health. There is no valid and reliable instrument to measure service-learning experience of nursing students.

 

METHOD: A psychometric evaluation was conducted through item analysis, validity, and reliability.

 

RESULTS: Face validity agreement was 80 percent; the content validity index was adjusted until 1 was achieved for each item. Two factors explained 58.64 percent of the total variance. Cronbach's [alpha] was .940 for the skills subscale and .932 for the personal insight subscale.

 

CONCLUSION: The inventory demonstrated strong psychometric properties. Future research should focus on replication on diverse populations.