Willingness to work with elderly people scale for medical and nursing students: cross cultural adaptation and psychometric validation

Abstract

The number of older people is increasing globally, particularly in middle-income countries like Turkey. The psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Willingness to Work with Elderly People Scale (WEPS-T) was evaluated in this study. A descriptive, methodological and cross-sectional design was used. The data were collected using a sociodemographic form and WEPS-T during April to June 2021. The language and content validity, explanatory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to assess the validity of the scale. The scale’s reliability was obtained using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, item-total correlations, and test-retest reliability. Content validity index of WEPS-T was excellent (CVI was 1.00). All the factor loadings were found to be > .30 in factors analysis. In CFA, it was inferred that the model had a good fit (×2/df = 5.344; GFI = .864; CFI = .868; RMSEA = .079; RMR <.01). A Cronbach’s alpha value was obtained 0.881 for the entire scale. The test-retest reliability scores of the first sub-dimension were r = .84 and p < .001, the second r = .97 and p < .001, the third r = .98 and p < .001, the fourth r. = .95 and p < .001 and the total score was r = .96 and p < .001. WEPS-T is a valid and reliable measurement tool that determines the willingness of Turkish nursing and medical students to work with the older people.