The Self-Efficacy in Palliative Care (SEPC) scale assesses the perceived competence of palliative care professionals. There is no validated version of this scale in Ecuador.
Aim:
We sought to culturally adapt and validate the SEPC scale in nursing professionals and students in Ecuador, examine their levels of self-efficacy, and explore influencing factors.
Methods:
Thirteen experts participated in a Delphi panel for cultural adaptation. For validation, 421 undergraduate students and 497 nursing professionals participated, providing sociodemographic information along with formative, professional, and personal experience in palliative care, followed by the SEPC scale, the Bugen Coping with Death scale, and the Palliative Care Difficulties scale. Twenty percent completed the instruments at the 6th month for intra-observer validity. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the original structure was performed.
Results:
The SEPC scale showed adequate 3-factor structure and excellent internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.98). Construct validity, assessed via CFA, showed a root mean square error of approximation of 0.053, indicating good model fit, with a comparative fit index of 0.984 and a Tucker-Lewis Index of 0.976. Nursing professionals demonstrated higher SEPC scores than students. Moreover, people with personal end-of-life experience and older people had higher SEPC scores. Higher self-efficacy is associated with better coping with death, but not with greater perceived difficulties in palliative care. This finding provides partial support for the convergent validity of the measure.
Conclusion:
The SEPC scale can be used in Ecuador and other similar contexts to assess self-efficacy perceived by nursing professionals and students.
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