Objectives. The aim of the study was to introduce Stress of Conscience Questionnaire SCQ into Czech environment, verify basic psychometric parameters, internal structure, elucidate association of the instrument scores with age, length of practice, working position, empathy, and construct local norms.
Subjects and setting. The sample consisted of 572 Czech nurses employed in hospitals in Prague and three Czech regions.
Nurses were approached by trained medical students and responded to SCQ and JSPE-HP questionnaires. Results.
Exploratory factor analysis indicated presence of two primary factors, F1- Inner and F2- External Demands. Subsequent test of construct multidimensionality performed by Schmid-Leiman transformation suggested existence of a general factor G accounting for 74 % of common variance and two specific factors accounting of 26 % of variance.
The value of omega-total = 0.882 represents the precision of the CSQ score to measure the blend of the G factor and specific factors. The internal consistency of the SCQ scale, estimated by Cronbach's coefficient alpha, was 0.79; 95%CI 0.76-0.81.
Study limitation. Measurement of conflict of conscience is self-reported and the sample is not representative of the whole Czech Republic.