Paper
Thursday, July 22, 2004
9:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Thursday, July 22, 2004
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Developing and Testing an Instrument to Measure the Professional Nursing Practice Environment
Mickey L. Parsons, RN, PhD, MHA, School of Nursing, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA, Carolyn Murdaugh, RN, PhD, FAAN, College of Nursing, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA, and Julie R. Erickson, RN, PhD, FAAN, College of Nursing, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
OBJECTIVE: To develop and test an instrument to measure the professional nursing practice environment. The instrument is based on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Hallmarks of the Professional Nursing Practice Environment (PNPE) developed by a national panel of nursing experts. DESIGN: A descriptive survey design tested a self-report instrument developed to measure the PNPE. POPULATION, SAMPLE, SETTING, YEARS: The sample consisted of 155 registered nurses employed in women’s services in a tertiary hospital located in the southwestern United States. Data were collected in 2003. CONCEPTS STUDIED TOGETHER: The hallmarks were organized into five concepts including: 1) Promotes a philosophy of clinical care emphasizing quality, safety, continuity of care, and accountability; 2) Promotes executive level nursing leadership; 3) Empowers nurse’s participation in clinical and organizational decision-making; 4) Demonstrates professional development support; and, 5) Creates interdisciplinary collaborative relationships. METHODS: Items were developed to measure each hallmark (subscale) and revised after expert consultation and review by practicing staff nurses for content validity. Four iterations were required to provide a content validity index of 100% for the instrument. Reliability analysis included internal consistency as well as inter-item, item to subscale, subscale to subscale, and subscale to total correlations. Construct validity was estimated with principal component confirmatory factor analysis for each subscale and the total scale. FINDINGS: Internal consistency reliability for the total instrument was .95 with subscale reliabilities ranging from .84 to .93. Explained variance for the five subscales ranged from.62-.79 with factor loadings between .61-.93. The five subscales loaded on PNPE with lambdas of .74-.92 with 66% explained variance. CONCLUSIONS: The PNPE instrument is a reliable and valid measure to assess the PNPE in hospital settings. IMPLICATIONS: Nursing practice leaders may use the instrument to evaluate and develop interventions to improve the work environment in their organizations.
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Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004