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Validation of the Santa Clara Ethics Scale (SCES) in Nursing Students: The Role of Ethics as a Protector of Student Compassion

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Ethics is one of the essential concepts associated with professional nursing practice, and can play a part in the development of compassion. Although a number of instruments have been developed for the measurement of ethics, most are context-specific or excessively lengthy. The Santa Clara Ethics Scale (SCES) overcomes these problems. The goal is to translate, adapt, and validate the Spanish version of the Santa Clara Ethics Scale and to study the role of ethics, as a moral resource, in the prediction of the levels of compassion of nursing students. METHODS: This study is a translation, adaptation, and validation study, with a cross-sectional design. A total of 924 Spanish nursing students participated in this study. Ethics and compassion for others were measured. Analyses included a confirmatory factor analysis, reliability estimates, and a structural equation model in which ethics explained the five correlated dimensions of compassion for others. RESULTS: < 0.01), CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.92, RMSEA = 0.07 [90% CI = 0.06, 0.08], and SRMR = 0.05. Internal consistency was adequate (α = 0.74; ω = 0.83). The predictive model pointed to positive and statistically significant relationships between ethics and all dimensions of compassion for others. CONCLUSIONS: The SCES can be considered a suitable instrument for the assessment of ethics in the Spanish nursing population and, thus, can be used as a tool for the measurement of key ethical competencies during the nursing degree. Moreover, the development of ethics is likely to improve the compassion levels of students. Ethics is, then, a key internal resource for both nursing students' compassionate care skills and, consequently, must be taken into account when redefining nursing students' curricula.

Source: Nursing Reports

DOI: 10.3390/nursrep14040265

Authors: Gabriel Vidal-Blanco, Javier Sánchez-Ruiz, Laura Galiana, Antonia Pades, Noemí Sansó

Institutions: Universitat de València, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Health Research Institute of the Balearic Islands

Language: English

Topic: Ethics in medical practice

Subfield: General Health Professions

Field: Health Professions

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,046