The nurse manager practice environment scale: development and psychometric testing.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Management
• Healthcare Administration
• Organizational Psychology

Background:

• Supportive practice environments are crucial for optimal patient, staff, and organizational outcomes.
• Existing scales assess staff nurses' practice environments, but a gap exists for nurse managers.
• No validated instrument was available to describe and assess nurse managers' practice environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a scale for assessing nurse managers' practice environments.
• To provide a psychometric tool for evaluating the work setting of nurse managers.
• To establish a reliable measure for nurse manager practice environments.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional survey design.
• Electronic survey administered to nurse managers across 25 hospitals in 9 health systems.
• Exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation was used for scale development.

Main Results:

• A 44-item scale with 8 distinct domains was developed.
• The scale demonstrated strong internal consistency, with Cronbach's alpha values ranging from .72 to .97.
• Mean scores on the 6-point Likert scale ranged from 3.92 to 4.99, indicating generally positive perceptions.

Conclusions:

• The developed scale possesses adequate psychometric properties for use in research and practice.
• Further testing and application of the scale are warranted.
• Assessing the nurse manager practice environment can identify opportunities for improving organizational performance and healthcare delivery.