The decision about retirement: A scale to describe representations and practices of medical doctors and nurses

Abstract

Objective: To test the psychometric properties of a newly designed instrument to describe the REpresentations and Practices About REtirement (the PREPARE instrument). Methods: Participants were nurses and doctors working in the two public hospitals of Porto, aged 55–65 years, in 2011. Among the 367 eligible participants, 231 (65.9%) participated in the study. The PREPARE instrument consists of four sections: 9, 5 and 12, respectively. A principal component analysis was performed to evaluate the scale's dimensionality, followed by a confirmatory factor analysis to test the fit using different indexes (TLI – Tucker–Lewis Index and CFI – Confirmatory fit index). Results: Principal confirmatory analysis and confirmatory factor analysis identified 3, 1 and 2 factors for section 1, 2 and 3. All confirmatory factor analysis models had a value of CFI and TLI higher than 0.9. Section 1 showed a first factor related with items about the importance of personal competences, a second factor related with items about the importance of relationships with patients, and third factor related with items about the importance of following ethical and directive rules; section 2 showed a general factor about the features you valued most in the other health professional group; and, finally, in section 3, the first factor was related with items about satisfaction with the work environment and the second factor with items about satisfaction with professional career. Conclusion: The PREPARE instrument has the basic requirements of a valid and reliable measurement of a scale to describe medical doctors and nurses representations and practices about the decision regarding retirement.