The nurse manager practice environment scale: development and psychometric testing

The objectives of this study were to develop and test a scale designed to describe and assess nurse managers' practice environments.

Creating practice environments supporting workers at all levels is critical to achieving excellent patient, staff, and organizational outcomes. Scales are available to assess staff nurses' practice environment; however, no comparable scale for nurse managers exists.

A cross-sectional design using an electronic survey was administered to nurse managers in 25 hospitals in 9 health systems from 6 states.

Exploratory factor analysis with a varimax rotation produced a final solution of 44 items loading in 8 domains. Cronbach's α's ranged from .72 to .97. Mean scores ranged from 3.92 to 4.99 on a 6-point Likert scale.

The scale demonstrated adequate psychometric properties and warrants further use and testing. Understanding the nurse manager practice environment may reveal insights to guide opportunities to improve organizational performance.