The Psychometric Evaluation of the Revised Clinical Skills Self-Efficacy Scale

Background and Purpose: This study's purpose was to psychometrically evaluate the revised Clinical Skills Self-Efficacy Scale (CSES). Self-efficacy is a predictor of an individual's behavior in situations such as learning to implement a new clinical nursing skill. Methods: Subjects were nursing students (N = 214). The CSES, an investigator-developed instrument designed to measure nursing students' perceptions of their self-efficacy as it relates to selected clinical skills, was used to measure clinical skills self-efficacy. The instrument consisted of 9 clinical skills. Results: There was evidence from 2 prior pilot studies both supporting the CSES's reliability and validity. Conclusions: Self-efficacy may be one way to explain the relationship between clinical skills instruction and the successful enactment of these clinical skills.