The application of Midwife Core Competency Scale in Beijing midwives

Objective To evaluate the reliability and validity of Midwife Core Competency Scale.Methods A total of 369 midwives from 32 hospitals in Beijing were investigated by using the Midwife Core Competency Scale,and the reliability and validity were measured.Results The scale had good internal consistency (Cronbach's α =0.950) and stability (the test-retest reliability was 0.832).The distribution of 54 items in 6 public factors (the cumulative variance＝68.405％) extracted from them was consistent with the original scale,yielding an acceptable construct validity.The scale also had good validity to discriminate different categories.Conclusions The Midwife Core Competency Scale had good reliability and validity,which provides an useful tool to evaluate midwifes' core competency.Larger sample from different areas need to be considered for scale improvement and application. Key words: Midwife; Core competency; Reliability; Validity