The Protection Scale of Healthcare Professionals and Their Families in Pandemia: A Scale Development Study Specific to COVID-19

Objective: In this study, “The Protection Scale of Healthcare Professionals and Their Families in Pandemia” (SHPFP) was developed specifically to the Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to determine the protection levels and efficiencies of the measures taken in healthcare institutions.
Methods: This study is of a methodological type. In scale studies, it is recommended to reach the number of participants 5-10 times more than the number of items in the item pool. The scale included 22 items and was applied to 220 participants. Therefore, 35 physicians, 148 nurses and 37 health technicians, were determined as the sample using a stratified random sampling method. The predictive factors for SHPFP were developed between the dates of June- September 2020. The internal consistency of the tool was examined using Cronbach’s alpha, and factor structure and discriminant validity by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The test-retest reliability was measured by intraclass correlation coefficient.
Results: The KMO sample suitability coefficient of the scale was found as 0.876, and Barlett’s Sphericity test as χ2=2715,998 (df=231). The tool having 22 items at first was reduced to 21 items in 5 factors describing 66.78% of the total variance. These five factors, of which the scree plot eigenvalue of 1.0 and above, are “business processes”, “participation in decisions”, “work environment”, “informing and isolation” and “psychological support”.
Conclusion: SHPFP, developed in this study, can be used in healthcare institutions to determine the protection levels and efficiencies of the measures taken due to the pandemic to protect healthcare staff and their families.