Validation and Psychometric Assessment of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index in the Portuguese Hospital Context

Abstract

Background: The nursing work environment has an impact on patient safety outcomes and its measurement should be a regular practice.

Purpose: To assess the reliability and construct validity of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index in the Portuguese context.

Methods: An exploratory factor analysis followed by a confirmatory factor analysis to assess model adjustment quality was performed with a sample of 3,686 nurses.

Results: The final solution for the exploratory factor analysis comprised 26 items and five factors (56.6% of the total variance). The confirmatory factor analysis, after refinement, showed a stable factor structure.

Conclusions: The final model showed good construct validity and high reliability, which supports the decision to exclude the items that are not essential to the construct being measured.

Keywords: Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index; nursing; psychometrics; reliability; validation.