Aim.  The aim of this paper is to report on the development and validation of an evaluation questionnaire for nursing websites.
Background.  Increasing numbers of the general public and health care professionals are using the Internet to access health and health care-related information. The quality of such websites, therefore, needs to be evaluated.
Methods.  A total of 24 websites in the United States and Taiwan, including websites in 13 leading schools and 11 hospitals, were selected as test websites. A total of 120 participants with Master's degrees in either nursing or mechanical engineering were invited to examine the 24 websites using a nursing website evaluation questionnaire. A 32-item questionnaire was developed, covering overall impression, download and switch speed, accessibility and convenience, web page content, service function and compatibility with common browsers. Participants were requested to connect to the specific websites and browse the contents before filling in the questionnaire. The results were arranged into 12 different sequences and prepared on a CD using Macromedia Dreamweaver. Data were analysed using Cronbach's α, Guttman split-half reliability and factor analysis.
Findings.  Internal consistency was good, with a Cronbach's α of 0·93 in Part I and a KR-20 (Kuder Richardson) of 0·85 in Part II. Four factors given in Part I were identified as content truth, accessibility and convenience, speed and connection, and overall impression.
Conclusion.  The nursing website evaluation questionnaire had good construct validity and internal consistency.