Although the literature suggests that incivility on the part of staff nurses toward student nurses
in the clinical setting exists, no instrument was found that addressed this phenomenon. This
article describes the development and validation of the uncivil behavior in clinical nursing
education (UBCNE) tool to measure nursing students' experiences with incivility in the clinical
learning environment. The 20-item UBCNE was administered to 118 nursing students at a
midwestern school of nursing. Analyses included evaluation of interitem response consistency,
internal structure via principal components analysis using both orthogonal and oblique rotation,
and assessment of the association to demographic variables and stress while on placement as a
criterion measure. Six items were dropped due to high loading on more than 1 component. This
resulted in a 12-item test with 2 modified subscales—hostile/mean/dismissive and exclusionary
behavior. The revised subscales and total test demonstrate good reliability, and both subscales
are clearly represented in the separate components. The UBCNE is an easily administered tool
with good internal consistency. Future studies with a larger sample and in different settings need
to be conducted.