ABSTRACT
Due to nurses’ common experiences of patient aggression and risk for injury, supervisors need to lead their nursing teams by effectively using preventive behaviors. Although some prior research examines supervisors’ roles, little is known about the specific actions supervisors enact to prevent aggression. The present research seeks to fill this gap by developing and validating a scale of aggression-preventive supervisor behaviors targeting patient aggression (APSB-P). To accomplish this, we conducted two studies. In study one, we use qualitative and quantitative approaches to generate, refine, evaluate, and select items. In study two, we draw on two samples of nursing professionals and one sample of diverse healthcare workers, including nurses, to test APSB-P for reliability and discriminant, convergent, and criterion validity. Across samples, results show strong validity evidence for APSB-P. Notably, the majority of proposed relationships for criterion validity were supported. Implications are discussed in the context of healthcare and nursing.
