Content Validation for a Medical-Surgical Orientation Competency Assessment Instrument

Demonstration of competency is an essential component of nursing orientation in the practice environment. Standardization of the assessment with a validated instrument supports high-quality care and patient safety. This study engaged six nurse experts to establish content validation for a newly developed competency-based assessment framed by the domains of the national standard for nursing education. Two rounds of rigorous review resulted in a scale content validity index universal agreement calculation of .891, indicating that all items were evaluated as relevant for inclusion in this comprehensive measure of registered nurse clinical competency in the medical-surgical specialty.