Assessment of operating room nurses' exposure to biological hazards: development and psychometric evaluation of a scale

BackgroundBiological hazards are one of the most common threats that operating room personnel face. The present study was conducted to develop and test the psychometric properties of a scale for measuring operating room nurses' exposure to biological hazards.MethodsThis study is a methodological research that was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, a pool of items was developed after an extensive literature review. In the second stage, the scale's validity and reliability were tested. The validity of the scale was assessed in terms of face validity, content validity, and construct validity. To determine the scale's reliability, the researchers evaluated internal consistency and stability.ResultsThe initial version of the exposure to biological hazards scale consisted of 75 items. After assessing face validity, 16 items were eliminated, and one item was added following an evaluation of content validity. In evaluation the construct validity of the scale, three factors were identified that accounted for 66.61% of the variance. The internal consistency of the scale was confirmed with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.88. Additionally, the split-half correlation coefficient was found to be 0.92, and an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.96 confirmed the stability of the scale.ConclusionThe results of the study show that the developed scale has satisfactory reliability and validity. Nursing managers can use it to assess operating room nurses' exposure to biological hazards in the workplace.