Translation and cultural adaptation of the Nurse Professional Competence Scale: The NPC Scale – German AUT language version

Abstract

Assessing nursing-related competences becomes increasingly relevant. Therefore, psychometrically tested and contentual appropriate instruments are needed. The Nurse Professional Competence (NPC) Scale seems convenient to assess nurses' competences in German-speaking countries. This article describes the translation and cultural adaption of the NPC Scale English-language version for the German-speaking linguistic area of Austria (AUT), following the respective principles defined by the International Society for Pharmaoeconomics and Outcome Research (ISPOR). The aim was to provide a German-language version of the NPC Scale usable for the Austrian specific linguistic and cultural area. Due to polydimensionality of the scale and the extensive number of items being stepwise revised by researchers, several innovative methodological approaches were required to ensure transparent and comprehensible decision-making, data-revision and consensus-gainig throughout the overall process. Useful methods are presented to cope with challenges accompanying the coverage of decentralized data-revision and consensus-finding within the translation and cultural adaption of a polydimensional scale with a high number of items. The Nurse Professional Competence Scale, 88 items – German Austrian language version is conceptually, semantically and idiomatically equivalent compared to the NPC Scale original version and is recommendable for the usage in the target country's nursing context from a linguistic point of view.