Abstract: Objective To translate patient safety competency self-rating scale (PSCSS) into Chinese and test its reliability and validity in nursing students. Methods We followed the Brislin translation guidelines to translate the scale and adopted the Delphi method to conduct cultural adjustment. From September to November 2020, 501 nursing students from 4 colleges or hospitals in Henan province were selected as the research objects to evaluate the reliability and validity of the scale. Results Seven common factors were extracted after exploratory factor analysis, which were named as safe nursing perception, adverse event reporting and response, adverse event communication, information and evidence-based nursing practice, safe nursing practice, safe nursing responsibility, and adverse event reporting attitude. The Chinese version of the scale consisted of 40 items, and the content validity index was 0.980. Exploratory factor analysis showed that the cumulative variance contribution rate was 69.813%; the Cronbach α coefficient of the total scale 0.948, and that of each dimension ranged from 0.870 to 0.916. There were statistically significant differences in the total scores of patient safety competency among trainee nursing students of different genders, training levels, and trainee hospital levels (P<0.01). Conclusion The Chinese version of PSCSS has good reliability and validity, and can be used as an effective tool to evaluate the patient safety competency of nursing students.

Key words: patient safety, competency, reliability, validity