NURSING PRACTICE WORK ENVIRONMENT IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS: ESSENTIAL CRITERIA FOR SAFE AND QUALITY NURSING CARE

Aims: The aim of the study is to report perception of nurses, on practice work environment in public hospitals based on the selected 28 items out of 31 items of Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI). Background: The concept of nursing practice work environment became popular after WHO’s initiatives on improving work environment of nurses in 2007-2010 in healthcare organizations across the world. There have been a numerous of studies conducted on nursing work environment across the world, however, very limited number of studies have been conducted in India. Indian healthcare has been evolving rapidly with right systems and high teachnological transformation. It is important to study this area at present. This study was one of studies conducted at Government hospitals in Maharashtra state in India. Methodology: The data was collected from overall 4 district hospitals of selected four circles of Maharashtra States in India. A structured interview schedules was used to collect the data from nurses. And also a observation check list and personal observations were made during the data collection period. The data was analysed by the SPSS programme. Results: The PES-NWI scale was shown to be reliable demonstrating internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha of the total scale of 0.9. Based on this study it is evident that nurse’s perception is mixed, no clarity of favorable and unfavorable environment, composite score is 3.1 on Likert scale of 1 – 5 range. Observation shows nurses were more with paper work than nursing care at bedside, no availaibity of computers and telephone in work areas and they were found to be more stressed due to high patient strength. In evening shift it was observed that one nurse was providing nursing care to 40 -50 patients/shift. Conclusion: This study indicates that the nurses need more autonomy and empowerment at all level that is from bedside to boardroom