Development and Validation of the Family and Community Nursing Advanced Practice Scale.
John Unsworth, Crystal Oldman, Joanne Atkinson and 5 others
PMID 39831576WHAT IT FOUND
A new scale identifies five core areas of advanced practice for family and community nurses: clinical care, leading practice, clinical reasoning, health promotion, and ethics.
The research domain was largely absent from the final tool, suggesting a gap in advanced research engagement.
Key findings
01The final validated scale consists of 27 items across five domains: clinical care, leading practice, clinical reasoning, health promotion, and ethics.
02Items related to the research pillar did not load onto any factor and were deleted, leaving only one item on using evidence to inform practice.
03Advanced practice nurses in general practice scored significantly higher in clinical reasoning and health promotion, while those in wider community roles scored higher in leading practice.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study used convenience sampling and an online survey, which may introduce self-selection bias and exclude those with limited digital access. The findings are specific to UK advanced practice roles and may not generalize to other countries with different regulatory frameworks or scopes of practice. The cross-sectional design prevented assessment of test-retest reliability, so the stability of the scale over time is unknown. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed on the same sample, which is methodologically less robust than using separate subsamples.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the absence of a research factor as proof that advanced practice nurses do not engage in research activities; it indicates that the items designed to measure this did not statistically cluster as a distinct domain in this specific sample, possibly due to low frequency or poor item construction.