Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Is the Nursing Work Index measuring up? Moving beyond estimating reliability to testing validity.

Greta G Cummings1, Leslie Hayduk, Carole A Estabrooks

  • 1Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. gretac@ualberta.ca

Nursing Research
|April 8, 2006
PubMed
Summary

Three instruments measuring the nursing practice environment, based on the Nursing Work Index (NWI), showed significant model fit issues. These findings question the validity of these tools for assessing the complex nursing practice environment.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Learnings, Challenges and Processes of Prioritizing Initial Programme Theories on Contextually Appropriate Nurse Staffing Models With a Multinational Team: A Realist Methodology Case Example.

Journal of clinical nursing·2026
Same author

Association of compassion fatigue and work context with post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms among care aides in nursing homes.

Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology·2026
Same author

Characteristics of long stay home care clients' acute care use who live with frailty in Alberta, Canada: A retrospective cohort study.

PloS one·2026
Same author

Equity, diversity, and inclusion in nursing educational institutions: A Walker and Avant concept analysis.

Nurse education today·2026
Same author

"We feel like we don't matter": the work experience of caring for long-term care residents with suspected trauma-related responsive behaviors.

BMC health services research·2026
Same author

Association of long-term care organizational context, facilitation, and their interactions with resident pain: a cross-sectional study.

Geriatric nursing (New York, N.Y.)·2026

Area of Science:

  • Nursing Research
  • Health Services Research
  • Organizational Psychology

Background:

  • The Nursing Work Index (NWI) is a foundational tool for assessing the nursing practice environment.
  • Three instruments derived from the NWI (NWI-R, Practice Environment Scale, and Estabrooks et al.'s model) have been presented as valid measures.
  • These instruments utilize different approaches, including conceptual derivation and empirical factor analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To critically evaluate the validity of three NWI-based instruments as measures of the nursing practice environment.
  • To determine if the underlying measurement models of these instruments align with empirical data.

Main Methods:

  • Reconstruction of the measurement models for each of the three instruments from published information.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Estimation of model fit using structural equation modeling (SEM) and chi-square tests.
  • Utilized data from the 1998 Canadian Nurse Survey for model testing.

    • Main Results:

    • All three instruments demonstrated significant lack of model fit with the Canadian Nurse Survey data.
    • The Aiken & Patrician model (chi2 = 939.12, p <.001), Lake's model (chi2 = 17,872.73, p <.001), and Estabrooks et al.'s model (chi2= 38,590.29, p <.001) failed to adequately represent the data.
    • This poor fit raises substantial questions regarding the validity of these instruments.

    Conclusions:

    • Factor-analytic approaches may be insufficient for adequately examining the complex nursing practice environment.
    • Insufficient attention to underlying theory may limit the robustness of current measurement instruments.
    • Advancing the understanding of the nursing practice environment requires developing robust theory and employing advanced research methods to test causal relationships.