title: Measuring hospital staff nurses perception on quality of the professional practice environment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to determine construct validity of the Dutch Essentials of Magnetism II © instrument, designed to assess nursing practice environments, using hypotheses testing.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Reduction in hospital length of stay and the number of inpatient beds increases care intensity. Educational levels and numbers of nursing staff in hospitals, however, do not match this increase, resulting in a strain on quality of care and patient safety. A possible answer to existing concerns about quality of care may be the creation of a productive and healthy practice environment, as this has an impact on the quality of care. Therefore, areas requiring improvement of the practice environment have to be defined.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional, correlational study design.
  
  
  METHODS
  We determined construct validity with hypotheses testing by relating the Dutch Essentials of Magnetism II to the Dutch Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index. We formulated 15 hypotheses prior to data-analysis; 10 related to convergent validity and five related to discriminant validity. Data were collected from qualified nurses (N = 259) on nine randomly selected hospital wards from March to April 2012.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Response rate was 47% (n = 121). Total scores of both instruments are strongly correlated (r = 0·88). In total, 12 of 15 hypotheses (80%) were confirmed and three were rejected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The D-EOMII has satisfactory construct validity for measuring the nursing practice environment in hospitals and can be used by nurses, managers, health policy makers, hospitals and governments to assess and identify processes and relationships that are in need of improvement.
authors.affiliation: Innovation, Dutch Nurses' Association, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Brigitte Johanna Maria
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2221-6297
authors.initials: BJM
authors.lastname: De Brouwer
authors.affiliation: Quality & Safety, Dr Horacio Oduber Hospitaal, Oranjestad, Aruba.
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fingal
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Lisette
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schoonhoven
authors.affiliation: National Health Care Institute, Vianen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marian J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kaljouw
authors.affiliation: Academisch Centrum voor verpleeg- en vroedkunde, KU Leuven Centre for Health Services and Nursing Research, Leuven, Belgium.|Scientific Institute for Quality of Healthcare, Radboud university medical centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Theo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Van Achterberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D011361:Professional Competence; D011787:Quality of Health Care
keywords: hospital care; hypotheses testing; nursing; practice environment; quality of care; workforce issues