Translations of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index: A systematic review

Since 2002, the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index has been used worldwide to evaluate nurse work environments. High quality translations in different languages can help advance science and inform practice globally. The study purposes were to conduct a systematic review of published translations of the instrument and to assess their linguistic equivalence and psychometric performance. We conducted a comprehensive search, a quality assessment and synthesis of linguistic equivalence, reliability, and validity data. Studies published through July 2021 were identified in the CINAHL, LILACS, EMCare, and Scopus databases. Thirty-eight publications were selected, comprising 46 translations into 24 languages and 15 language variants, and 35 countries. Translations are in predominantly European, Southeast Asian, and Middle Eastern languages. Two-thirds of the translations reflected medium to high fulfillment of translation quality criteria. The GRADE ratings, reflecting satisfactory fulfillment of cross-cultural equivalence and psychometric properties, were predominantly high (n = 23), then low (n = 15), then moderate (n = 8). The identified translations will support the advancement of global science and the improvement of nurses' work environments.