Professional, individual, and organizational deprivation in nurses: a study on developing a multidimensional scale

This methodological study was aimed to develop a multidimensional deprivation scale for nurses. Deprivation in nurses is a significant factor leading to psychological distress, although research on this topic remains limited. An item pool of 88 statements was prepared, 11 experts were consulted for content validity, and a pilot study was conducted with 54 nurses. In the study, EFA data were collected face-to-face from 468 nurses employed in six hospitals in a province, while CFA data were collected online from 228 nurses working in different regions. The analyses showed that the scale consisted of three subscales: professional deprivation, individual deprivation, and organizational deprivation. The total variance explained and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were, respectively, 55.563% and 0.724 for the professional deprivation subscale, 52.345% and 0.874 for the individual deprivation subscale, and 65.477% and 0.899 for the organizational deprivation subscale. The professional deprivation subscale consisted of seven items and two subdimensions; the individual deprivation subscale consisted of 13 items and two subdimensions; the organizational deprivation subscale consisted of 18 items and four subdimensions. The factor loadings of all scale items were above 0.45, and the item-total score correlation values were above 0.30. According to the CFA, the fit indices were within acceptable and excellent limits. For each subscale, the Cronbach’s alpha value was above 0.70. Convergent and discriminant validity and item discrimination were ensured for each subscale. There was no statistically significant difference between the mean test and retest scores ( p > 0.05). In conclusion, the developed scale is a valid and reliable tool to measure nurses’ deprivation levels.