This study’s aim was to develop a scale to measure secondary traumatic stress for nursing staff,and to examine its reliability and validity. A mailed questionnaire survey was carried out twice. Survey 1 was distributed to five hundred fifty six nurses from three polyclinic hospitals in the “A” prefecture, with a valid response rate of 60.8%. Survey 2 included 996 nursing staff from 21 general hospitals nationwide, with a valid response rate of 72.2%.
Following analysis of the survey data, a 20-item scale was developed, with three factors, “anxiety and reduced intentionality,” “post-traumatic stress reactions,” and “negative emotional reactions.” The internal consistency and reliability of the scale was analyzed using exploratory factor, reliability, cross-correlation, and item score-total score correlation. Concurrent validity of the scale was examined by correlation analysis with the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and Japanese version of the Burnout Scale; construct validity was also verified by examining differences in the scale scores by the group, which was selected based on the level of sympathy for patients and duration of care provided. Final confirmatory factor analysis indicated fit indices of CFI = .914 and RMSEA = .092, which met a degree of criteria as the scale. Thus, the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale for nursing staff exhibited a degree of reliability and validity.