A PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE INVENTORY: PSYCHOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS AND VALIDITY OF AN INSTRUMENT FOR NURSES(INTELLIGENCE).
Contributors: Kent State University.
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 164
Subjects: Education, Tests and Measurements.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Psychometrics.
Description: The purpose of the study was to develop and validate a Practical Knowledge Inventory for Nurses (PKIN). The theoretical framework for the study was based on Wagner and Sternberg's theory of practical intelligence. Wagner and Sternberg propose that practical intelligence is marked by individual differences in tacit knowledge, i.e., differences in how easily one attends to implicit environmental cues and subsequently uses these cues to effectively guide behavior. Wagner and Sternberg have shown that practical intelligence is unrelated to academic intelligence and positively related to performance on the job for both managers and academic psychologists. Therefore, extending the range of areas in which tacit knowledge can be shown to function will aid in the validation of the construct.

The instrument development phase consisted of developing and piloting PKIN items. In cooperation with several practicing nurses, the researcher developed ten work-related scenarios which depict typical practical problems encountered by both L.P.N.s and R.N.s in their daily work environment. Response options were written for each scenario, and subjects were asked to rate each response's effectiveness in addressing the problem presented in the scenario. For scoring purposes, the mean response of four expert nurses served as the correct response for each item, and were referred to as the expert prototype. Each respondent's score was calculated in terms of its deviation from the expert prototype. Finally, a pilot study was conducted and items were eliminated according to their correlations with the total score and years experience as a nurse.

The final phase of the study consisted of scaling the PKIN with a Rasch Partial-Credit Model and establishing its construct and predictive validity. Although all items and most persons fit the Rasch model, the predictive validity of the PKIN was not adequate. Suggestions for revising the PKIN include the addition of more difficult questions of appropriate content.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-06, Section: A, page: 2210.

Thesis (PH.D.)--KENT STATE UNIVERSITY, 1994.

School code: 0101.