Developing a Questionnaire to Assess Opinions Regarding the Importance of Bathing and Washing Without Water

Bathing is one of the most performed activities among nurses. Although care recipients experience bathing as an important activity in daily living, nurses often undervalue this care task. We developed a questionnaire to measure nurses’ opinions regarding 1) the importance of the bed bath, and 2) a bathing innovation known as Washing Without Water. Construction of the questionnaire items was based on literature and interviews with nursing home residents (n=8), their family (n=5) and nurses (n=6). After items construction, nurses and nursing students (n=124) completed the questionnaire to assess the questionnaire’s internal consistency (IC) and construct validity. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were analyzed as an indicator for IC and items were deleted if this resulted in improved IC. To analyze the construct validity, a Principal Component Analyses (PCA) with Direct Oblimin Factor rotation was performed. The final scale consists of two subscales. The first subscale measures nurses’ opinions about the importance of the bed bath and consists of 12 items. The second subscale consists of 17 items and aims to inventory nurses’ opinions about the Washing Without Water innovation. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients are high (.81 for the first and .89 for the second subscale). The PCA results show a one factor loading for both subscales, explaining 33,20% and 37,08% of the variance for the first and second subscale respectively. Results indicate a reliable and valid questionnaire to measure nurses’ opinions related to the bed bath, which can support health care institutions in evaluating the bed bathing process.

Un método para determinar competencias distintivas en pequeñas y medianas empresas?

The sources of competitive advantage are firm characteristics that allow them to be in a better position than its competitors. Modern firm theories consider that these sources are internal and external factors of business. Entrepreneur combines these factors by the strategy to set their core competencies. This paper proposes a method for determining the formation of core competencies. We discuss the different techniques used and we propose an alternative based on principal components with direct oblimin rotation. We assess the implementation of this method to a particular case in SMEs.

Death Anxiety and Death Depression in Spanish Nurses

This study examined the dimensional structure of Tomás-Sábado and Gómez-Benito's Death Anxiety Inventory and Templer, et al.'s Death Depression Scale-Revised. The responses of 244 Spanish nurses to the Spanish forms of both scales were evaluated by means of a principal axis factor analysis with direct Oblimin rotation. Five significant factors were identified: Internally Generated Death Anxiety, Death Depression, Externally Generated Death Anxiety, Death Threat, and Death Sadness, accounting for 51.6% of the variance. The distribution of the factor loadings for the items of both scales on the five factors supported the discriminant validity of the constructs specific to each of the scales and justified their use in evaluating death anxiety and death depression independently.

Factor Structure of the Smith Irrational Beliefs Inventory: Results of Analyses on Six Independent Samples

This study reports the results of six factor analyses (alpha factoring, direct oblimin rotation, Delta = .4) on six items from the Smith Irrational Beliefs Inventory. Six independent samples of 1851 college students (521 men, 1,280 women, 50 sex unstated) were tested. Three factors emerged with identical content for each analysis. Distorted Egocentrism was defined by two items reflecting feelings of entitlement and the naïve assumption that events should always turn out favorably the way one desires; Task Exaggeration/Catastrophizing was defined by two items directly depicting a tendency to view challenges as overwhelming and catastrophic; and Isolated Low Self-esteem was defined by two items expressing the feeling that one has unacceptable feelings that could lead to isolation or rejection. Previous research on other irrational belief inventories has yielded inconsistent results, with multifactorial solutions emerging for clinical samples and unifactoral solutions for student samples. That the present six factor analytic studies yielded a consistent multifactoral set of irrational beliefs for a very large student sample suggests that factors do emerge when items are initially screened and the subject population is carefully defined.

The construction and evaluation of a normative learning style preference questionnaire

Various authors have indicated the need for and value of identifying the learning style preferences of individual learners. Similar needs have been voiced in the South African context.The focal point of this study was the development of a normative instrument for predicting the preferred learning styles of individuals. Secondary aims were to determine whether there are differences between groups formed on the basis of gender, academic qualifications and functional disciplines as far as their learning style preferences are concerned. Based on a review of the literature and an existing questionnaire, namely the Learning Style Inventory (LSI 85), the Learning Style Preference Questionnaire (LSPQ) consisting of 136 items was developed and administered to respondents (N= 542) in a large organisation. The LSPQ was subjected to a principal factor analysis and six factors were obtained.The six factors were rotated to simple structure by means of the Direct Oblimin procedure. The matrix of intercorrelations of the six factorswas subjected to a second-order factor analysis and yielded a single factor. Opsomming Verskeie outeurs het na die behoefte aan asook die waarde van identi¢kasie van leerstylvoorkeure van individuele leerders verwys. Soortgelyke behoeftes is ook in Suid-Afrikaanse verband geopper.Die fokus van hierdie studie was die ontwikkeling van ’n normatiewe instrument om die leerstylvoorkeure van individue te meet. Sekondere doelwitte was omte bepaal of daar verskille tussen groepe is wat saamgestel is op grond van geslag, akademiese kwalifikasies en funksionele dissiplines wat hul leerstylvoorkeure betref. Gegrond op ’n oorsig van die literatuur en ’n bestaande vraelys, tewete die ‘‘Learning Style Inventory’’ (LSI 85), is die ‘‘Learning Style PreferenceQuestionnaire‘‘ (LSPQ), bestaande uit 136 items, gekonstrueer en op 542 respondente in’n groot organisasie toegepas. Die LSPQ is aan ’n hoo¡aktorontleding onderwerp en ses faktore is verkry. Die ses faktore is deur middel van die Direct Oblimin-prosedure na eenvoudige struktuur geroteer.

Treinamento: análise do relacionamento da avaliação nos níveis de reação, aprendizagem e impacto no trabalho

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo relatar a validação de escalas de avaliação de reações ao treinamento, bem como os resultados da análise do relacionamento entre os três mais tradicionais níveis: reação, aprendizagem e impacto do treinamento no trabalho. A literatura especializada tem mostrado que os relacionamentos entre esses níveis nem sempre são significativos ou estão na direção tradicionalmente prevista. Apesar de muito importantes, medidas válidas e confiáveis de reação ainda são raras. O questionário de avaliação de reações descrito nesse trabalho contém 39 itens. Foi aplicado em uma amostra de servidores públicos participantes de 229 cursos de curta duração. As aproximadamente 3.700 respostas válidas aos questionários foram submetidas à análise dos principais componentes e à análise fatorial (PAF, rotação oblíqua - direct oblimin),e à análise de consistência interna (alfa de Cronbach). Foram obtidas duas escalas altamente confiáveis: uma concernente às reações ao treinamento e outra referente ao desempenho do instrutor. Quanto ao relacionamento entre os níveis de avaliação, encontrou-se que reações estão fortemente correlacionadas com impacto, porém fracamente com aprendizagem. Os resultados são discutidos em termos de suas implicações práticas e teóricas para avaliação de treinamento.

Factor Replication of the Reduced Laffrey Health Conception Scale

This study replicated the factor model for the Reduced Laffrey Health Conception Scale (RLHCS), which was originally developed by Laffrey (1986) and reduced by Lusk, Kerr, and Baer (1995). Two independent samples of construction workers (n - 697 and n = 510) were used. The samples were predominately Caucasian males (over 97%), with mean ages of 35 and 38 years, respectively. Principal components factor analysis with direct oblimin rotation and structural equation modeling were used to replicate factors and to test the equality of the three observed covariance matrices (factory workers and two groups of construction workers), respectively. Results replicated the two-factor structure (clinical health and overall wellness) found in the earlier study with factory workers (Lusk et al., 1995) and demonstrated factor in variance across different samples.