The recovery knowledge inventory for measurement of nursing student views on recovery-oriented mental health services

Recovery-oriented services are a goal for policy and practice in the Australian mental health service system. Evidence-based reform requires an instrument to measure knowledge of recovery concepts. The Recovery Knowledge Inventory (RKI) was designed for this purpose, however, its suitability and validity for student health professionals has not been evaluated. The purpose of the current article is to report the psychometric features of the RKI for measuring nursing students’ views on recovery. The RKI, aself-report measure, consists of four scales: (I) Roles and Responsibilities,(II) Non-Linearity of the Recovery Process, (III) Roles ofSelf-Definition and Peers, and (IV) Expectations Regarding Recovery.Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses of the baselinedata (n = 167) were applied to assess validity and reliability. Exploratoryfactor analyses generally replicated the item structuresuggested by the three main scales, however more stringent analyses(confirmatory factor analysis) did not provide strong supportfor convergent validity. A refined RKI with 16 items had internalreliabilities of α = .75 for Roles and Responsibilities, α = .49 forRoles of Self-Definition and Peers, and α = .72, for Recovery asNon-Linear Process. If the RKI is to be applied to nursing studentpopulations, the conceptual underpinning of the instrument needsto be reworked, and new items should be generated to evaluate andimprove scale validity and reliability