Developing a comprehensive career development scale for public health nurses in Japan.

Objectives This study aims to develop a scale that can comprehensively measure public health nurses'(PHNs) career development and to verify the validity and reliability of that scale. Design and samples This study is a cross-sectional investigation. The participants were 1,009 PHNs working in a government facility in Japan. A total of 586 participants who had been working for more than 3 years as PHNs were analyzed. Measurements Anonymous self-response questionnaires included items on professional awareness, practical competency, and job satisfaction. We conducted exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to clarify the construct validity of the scale. The reliability was examined by the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The validity was examined by an external reference relevant validity and the known-group method. Results The scale was structured with 32 items covering three factors: "community activities, policy, and management," "PHN identity," and "foundations as a PHN." The Cronbach's alpha coefficients were all greater than 0.9. In confirmatory factor analysis, the scale showed acceptable goodness of fit. Conclusions The comprehensive career development scale for PHNs proved its reliability and validity. This scale may be useful to promote PHN identity and competency comprehensively in basic education and in-charge education.