Development of a scale to measure perceptions of nurses about organizational climates in wards, and its reliability and validity

DOI: 10.5176/2315-4330_WNC18.83

Authors: Mika Takano, Maki Matsuo, Yuko Takayama, Chiaki Kinouchi

Abstract:

This study aims to develop a scale to measure how nurses perceive the organizational climate in hospital wards, and examine the reliability and validity of the scale. After a literature review, the authors conducted brainstorming, and extracted question items for a scale to measure perceptions of nurses about the organizational climate in wards based on the result of the brainstorming. Further, we examined the content validity and face validity, and created a draft scale comprised on 33 items. A questionnaire survey was administered to 857 nurses in four hospitals in the Kanto region of Japan. The questionnaire is comprised of questions covering demographic characteristics and the draft scale as well as the 28 items from an Areas of Worklife Survey (AWS), which also functions as an external criterion to confirm the criterion-related validity. We conducted the second survey two weeks after the first, and evaluated the reliability of the scale using the test-retest method. This study was conducted under the approval of the Ethics Committee of the university the authors belong to. We collected 668 responses, and 602 were determined as valid for analysis. An explanatory factor analysis yielded 19 items comprising 4 factors. For the Cronbach α, a coefficient of reliability, we obtained 0.925 for the whole scale, and 0.721 to 0.896 for four subscales. The correlation coefficient with the AWS, an external criterion, was 0.78. In the second survey conducted as a retest, 456 responses were matched with the first survey, and included in the analysis. Pearson’s correlation coefficient for the first and second surveys was 0.79. Construct factors were named [Actions to improve quality of nursing], [Support of staff by the head nurse], [Cooperation between physicians and nurses], and [Work time management]. The scale to measure perceptions of nurses about the organizational climate in wards was comprised of 19 items and 4 factors, and we confirmed that it showed good reliability and validity.

Keywords: organizational climate; nurses; wards; scale development