Assessing coping skills in mental health nurses: is an occupation specificmeasure better than a generic coping skills scale?

The aim of the present study was to compare the reliability and validity of two separate measures of coping skills when used with mental health nurses . The study compared the PsychNurse Methods of Coping Scale, a measure deve loped specifically for this population, and the more generalisable coping s kills subscale from Cooper's Occupational Stress Indicator. Both measures w ere administered via a postal questionnaire along with the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and a demographic chec klist. Questionnaires were returned by 175 nurses, a response rate of 25%. It was hypothesised that the PsychNurse Scale would be a more reliable and valid measure when applied to mental health nurses. This prediction was con firmed. Specifically the PsychNurse Scale had higher item total correlation s, better inter factor correlations, higher internal consistency, and bette r predictive and item discriminative validity. Interestingly, community men tal health nurses scored significantly higher on both coping scales than wa rd based mental health nurses. The PsychNurse Scale is more psychometricall y robust than a generic coping skills scale when applied to mental health n urses. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.