Translation, adaptation for nursing professionals, and preliminary psychometric evaluation of the original version of the attitudes towards medical communication scale

Background: Attitudes toward medical communication play a crucial role in shaping nursing professionals’ communication behavior. To date, there is no German measure that assesses attitudes towards communication in nursing professionals.Objective: The aims were (a) to translate and adapt the Attitudes Towards Medical Communication Scale for nursing professionals, and (b) to perform a preliminary evaluation of its psychometric properties.Design: We conducted a mixed-methods study.Methods: First, the 12-item measure was translated and adapted following the TRAPD team translation protocol. Then, data for psychometric testing were collected via an online survey involving nursing professionals from Germany working in clinical settings. We assessed item characteristics (e.g. corrected item-total-correlations, inter-item correlations, item difficulty), construct validity through confirmatory factor analysis and testing correlation with self-efficacy regarding clinical communication (hypothesizing a moderate correlation between r = 0.3 and r = 0.5), and internal consistency using McDonald's Omega.Results: The translation and adaptation process resulted in the Attitudes Towards Medical Communication Scale – German version for nursing professionals. N = 173 nursing professionals participated in the online survey. Due to low variance and/or low factor loadings as well as uncertainties about the match between the items’ content and the construct of attitudes toward medical communication, we removed three items. The 9-item version yielded inconsistent results for model fit of our data (CFI = 0.91, TLI = 0.87, RMSEA = 0.11; factor loadings <0.4). Subsequent analysis demonstrated a moderate correlation with self-efficacy regarding clinical communication (r = 0.38) and adequate internal consistency (ω = 0.76).Conclusion: To our knowledge, the Attitudes Towards Medical Communication Scale – German version for nursing professionals is the first German measure assessing attitudes toward medical communication. Given the inadequate results regarding item characteristics and psychometric properties, further research is needed. This should include further exploration of the corresponding construct for the target group, as well as refinement of existing items or the addition of new ones.