Measuring the Nursing Work Environment in Mainland China: Further Development of the Chinese Nursing Work Environment Scale.

BACKGROUND: For the stabilization of the nursing profession in mainland China, a valid and reliable nursing work environment instrument, grounded in China's context, should be developed to better provide rigorous evidence for policy makers.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the current research was to further develop a scale that could capture the characteristics of the nursing work environment in mainland China.

METHODS: A convenience sample of 542 nurses employed in a tertiary hospital of mainland China completed the 108-item Chinese Nursing Work Environment (C-NWE) Scale (1st ed.). Items that did not differentiate between respondents with the highest and lowest 27% of total scores and those that did not meet criteria for factor loadings were set aside. Exploratory factor analysis based on the maximum likelihood method was used to identify the structure of the scale. The chi-square test was used to evaluate model fit, and expert review was conducted to test content validity. Reliability was estimated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.

RESULTS: The revised C-NWE Scale, which consists of nine subscales and 47 items, is a simplified version of the C-NWE (1st ed.). Using exploratory maximum likelihood factor analysis, the normed chi-square fit index for a nine-factor solution was 1.97. The content validity index for the total scale was 0.93; Cronbach's alpha was .94.

DISCUSSION: Initial evidence of the psychometric properties of C-NWE scores was presented. Further studies could be conducted in various settings to identify the C-NWE Scale's validity and reliability.