Psychometric Analysis of the Nurse Manager Work Environment Scale

Warshawsky, Nora E.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Nora E. Warshawsky, MPA, MSN, PhD
College of Nursing, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY

Learning Objective 1: By participating in this session, the learner will be able to describe evidence-based domains of the nurse manager work environment.

Learning Objective 2: By participating in this session, the learner will be able to identify priorities to improve the work environment of nurse managers.

Nurse managers create healthy work environments for nurses; yet, evidence suggests that nurse managers and staff nurses may view their work environments differently. Several valid and reliable tools to assess staff nurse perceptions of their work environment exist but there is no comparable instrument to assess the nurse manager work environments. Complexity leadership theory and findings from a review of research of nurse manager job satisfaction, engagement, and stress guided the development of the Nurse Manager Work Environment Scale. The initial scale consisted of 59 items in 11 domains. Content validity was established by a panel of seven content experts.

All nurse managers working in 25 hospitals in 9 health care systems were invited to complete an electronic survey. Responses from 356 nurse managers (83% response rate) were included in this analysis. Respondents scored each item twice: first, did the item affect their ability to perform their jobs and second, using a 6-point Likert scale, the degree to which they perceived that the item was present in their organization.

Exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation yielded 41 items in 8 factors. The mean scores and standard deviations by factors were: Administrative Leaders create Learning Environments (4.83, 0.77), Supportive Nurse Manager-Director Relationships (4.72, 1.04), Culture of Generativity (4.21, 0.96), Adequate Budgeted Resources (3.92, 1.08), Culture of Meaning (4.88, 0.79), Nurse Manager-Physician Partnerships for Quality Patient Outcomes (4.17, 1.06), Effective Nurse Manager-Unit Staff Relationships (4.99, 0.75), and Fair and Manageable Workload (4.29, 1.11), and Total Scale (4.50, 0.71). Cronbach’s alpha for the total scale was 0.96 and subscales were 0.72 to 0.93.

Reported scores indicated managers “somewhat agreed” to “agreed” that the items were present in their work environments. The highest scored subscale was Effective Nurse Manager-Unit Staff Relationships and lowest scored subscale was Adequate Budgeted Resources. Further psychometric testing is warranted.

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