Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The representations of human vulnerability held by health workers - development and validation of a scale

2013; UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO; Volume: 21; Issue: spe Linguagem: Inglês

10.1590/s0104-11692013000700005

1518-8345

Carlos Manuel Torres Almeida, Vítor Manuel Costa Pereira Rodrigues, Joaquim José Jacinto Escola,

Employment and Welfare Studies

OBJECTIVES: This study's objective consisted of the construction and validation of a scale to identify the representation of human vulnerability in the health field. METHOD: its development was divided into three steps: a bibliographic review and exploratory interviews were conducted to establish the items and their subsequent aggregation into dimensions; evaluation by an expert committee; and pre-test. The scale's psychometric properties were evaluated based on its application to a sample of individuals (nurses, physicians, and senior nursing and medical undergraduate students). Validity, reliability, and internal consistency tests were performed. RESULTS: the scale obtained consists of four dimensions (knowledge of intrinsic vulnerability, knowledge of extrinsic vulnerability, experience of vulnerability, and perception of vulnerability in patients). The scale presents good internal consistency with high Cronbach's alpha coefficient values. CONCLUSION: The Representation of Human Vulnerability in Health Workers Scale is easy to apply and presents reliable psychometric properties. It is an innovative tool that can be used in the development of studies addressing human vulnerability.