Research Instruments

In addition to my faculty position at Boise State University, I also serve as a consultant to the nursing community on issues related to fostering civility. I have developed several instruments for measuring incivility and civility in various settings and with various groups. The instruments are described here.

Incivility in Nursing Education (INE) Survey

Dr. Clark developed the Incivility in Nursing Education (INE) survey in 2004. Since then it has been used in several empirical studies and has been translated into Hebrew, Farsi, Indonesian, Filipino, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, Arabic, and French. The INE survey is used to describe student and faculty perceptions of incivility in nursing education. Some of its unique features include:

Mixed method design structure with quantitative and qualitative items
Students and faculty complete the same survey to measure both groups’ perceptions of incivility
Provides a stable structure of items which are reliably answered by survey participants
May be used as an assessment tool to measure perceived levels of faculty and student incivility
May be used to stimulate dialogue among nursing administrators, faculty, and students about prevention and intervention strategies for addressing incivility in nursing education

Incivility in Higher Education (IHE) Survey

The IHE survey was developed by Dr. Clark in 2007. It was adapted from the Incivility in Nursing Education (INE) survey and may be used to measure the degree to which administrators, faculty, staff, and students perceive academic incivility to be an issue on college and university campuses. Its features are similar to the INE Survey.

For a detailed description and analysis of the INE Survey, or to request permission to use the INE or the IHE Survey, please contact Dr. Clark at cclark@boisestate.edu.

Incivility in Online Learning Environments (IOLE) Survey

The IOLE Survey is a new instrument developed by Dr. Clark that is currently being used in research studies in online learning environments at nursing schools in the Northwest United States and in the Midwest. The IOLE measures student and faculty perceptions of incivility in the online learning environment and ways to effectively address the problem. Findings from the current studies will be published in the near future.

Faculty-to-Faculty Incivility Survey (F-F I Survey)

The Faculty-to-Faculty Incivility Survey (F-F I Survey) is designed to measure faculty perceptions of and frequency with faculty incivility and ways to address the problem. The F-F I Survey is based on empirical findings from several research studies and includes both quantitative and qualitative items. The F-F I Survey has been used in a mixed methodological study with one manuscript in review and a second in progress. The F-F I Survey will be used in additional empirical studies during fall 2012.

Organizational Civility Scale (OCS) Clark and Landrum

According to the Joint Commission, the accrediting agency for health care organizations, health care is a “high-stakes, pressure-packed environment that can test the limits of civility in the workplace.” Rude, disruptive behavior among health care professionals can pose a serious threat to patient safety and the overall quality of care. Therefore, health care organizations must address these problematic behaviors. My colleague, Dr. Eric Landrum and I have developed the Organizational Civility Scale (OCS) to measure the extent to which incivility is perceived to be a problem in a variety of health care and business settings to identify the factors which contribute to it, and to generate solutions. If your organization is interested in learning more about the OCS and its use, please contact Dr. Cindy Clark at cclark@boisestate.edu or Dr. Eric Landrum at elandru@boisestate.edu.

Culture/Climate Assessment Scale

The CCAS is psychometrically reliable instrument that measures the overall culture and climate of academic organizations and includes subscales that assess communication, decision support, conflict, teamwork, and general work satisfaction. It also includes three context items (level of stress, amount of change, and overall morale rating) and 8 open-ended items to help administrators better understand responses to the sub-scale and context items and amplify the quantitative results. The CCAS has been used in several academic organizations and in longitudinal studies in the Boise State University School of Nursing. The results have been useful in helping academic organizations develop strategies for improving the culture and climate. If your organization is interested in learning more about the CCAS and its use, please contact Dr. Pamela Springer at pspring@boisestate.edu.