Abstract
Objective
To establish basic data for identifying the level of mental health care competency of general nurses through verification of the reliability and validity of Competency Assessment Tool-Mental Health in the development of a measurement tool for mental health care competency in Korea.
Methods
This study was conducted on nurses working at general wards, excluding those working at the Department of Psychiatry, in five hospitals with 200 beds or more located in Korea. Content, construct, concurrent validity, and internal consistency of the measurement were confirmed.
Results
As a result of the construct validity, the section on importance of skills and knowledge for mental health care had 21 items, whereas the section on benefits of additional education had 22 items. The internal consistency of measurement was confirmed as follows: Cronbach's α = 0.96 for the section on importance and 0.96 for the section on benefits section.
Conclusions
This study verified the high validity and reliability of the tool in assessing the mental health care competency of nurses, and it is believed to be significant as basic data for enhancing such competency.