The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale in Critical Care Nurses: A Psychometric Analysis

Objective: (a) To investigate the factor structure of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) in critical care nurses, using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and (b) to assess reliability and known group differences of the CD-RISC on critical care nurses. Methods: CD-RISC surveys were collected on 744 critical care nurses across the United States. An abridged version of the CD-RISC was used for the EFA and CFA. Further reliability and known group differences were also tested. Results: EFA identified 3 factors with eigenvalues >1.0 and an explained variance of 59%. The factors were labeled personal competence, perseverance, and leadership, and each factor had salient loadings. The 3-factor CFA provided good fit to the data, χ² = 243.1, p < .001; RMSEA = .062; CFI = .935, although correlations among the 3 factors were high (.78–.86). A 1-factor model was subsequently tested but did not produce a better fit, and model comparison analyses supported retention of the 3-factor model. Known group differences was supported as intensive care unit (ICU) nurses with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) had significantly lower total resilience scores (M = 75.43) compared to those without a diagnosis of PTSD (M = 83.21; t = 5.01; p < .001). Discussion: The current investigation found that the 3-factor structure provided the best fit for the data on the abridged version of the CD-RISC in a population of ICU nurses. Analyses also supported the reliability and known group differences of the 16-item measure. Further research is needed to examine trait and capacity features of resilience as it relates to this population.