Translation and application of G-MHLC-C scales in academic and non-academic nursing staff

To date, studies on the health locus of control have focused on chronically ill and pregnant patients and have not included staff working in health services. Following the translation of the MHLC-C into German and its pre-testing by Wallston et al . [1], the G-MHLC-C was completed by 212 academic and non-academic nurses and the results of the respective groups were compared. With a Cronbachs of α=0.70, the internal consistency of the G-MHLC-C was within acceptable limits. Two of the sub-scales showed poor consistency. When comparing the scores of both groups, only the G-MHLC-C ‘chance’ subscale showed a significant difference (p=0.01). Before recommending the general use of G-MHLC-C, further studies on the translation and validation should be conducted. In addition, it should be explored to what extent the G-MHLC-C for nursing staff represents a suitable tool despite their professional experiences and nursing education.