The integrated nurse self-leadership and caring scale: development and psychometric evaluation
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Background: Nurses require both self-leadership and caring capacities to deliver safe, compassionate, and adaptive care. Self-leadership refers to an individual's ability to regulate thoughts, behaviors, and motivation to achieve professional goals. Existing instruments typically measure these constructs separately, limiting holistic assessment. Objective: We aimed to develop and psychometrically evaluate the Integrated Nurse Self-Leadership and Caring Scale. Methods: A methodological study was conducted in two phases: instrument development and psychometric testing. A 30-item pool was generated from self-leadership and caring theories and refined through expert review and cognitive debriefing. Data were collected from 169 Indonesian nurses and final-year professional nursing students. Internal consistency was assessed with Cronbach's α, while construct validity was examined using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Results: < .001). EFA supported a six-factor structure, accounting for 64.0% of total variance, with 29 of 30 items meeting the loading threshold. Conclusion: We found that the Integrated Nurse Self-Leadership and Caring Scale demonstrated promising reliability and construct validity among Indonesian nurses, providing preliminary evidence of its usefulness for assessing the integration of self-leadership and caring within this context. Future researchers should extend validation through confirmatory and predictive analyses.
Institutions: Universitas dr. Soebandi, Padjadjaran University
Language: English
Subfield: Leadership and Management
Field: Nursing
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,930
Award: G3068747324
OpenAlex ID: W7161173151