Why work in perioperative nursing? Baby boomers and generation Xers tell all

AORN Journal,  Oct, 2007  by Julia A. Thompson

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RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF STUDY TOOLS The tools I used in this study included the WES and a semi-structured interview guide. I used the WES for the quantitative portion and the interview guide for the qualitative, phenomenological portion of the study.

WORK ENVIRONMENT SCALE. I used the WES, which was developed by Moos, (18) to determine nurses' perceptions of their work environment. The WES is composed of 90 true-or-false items representing 10 subscales that measure the social environments of work settings.

The 10 WES subscales assess three broad aspects of the environment: relationship dimensions; personal growth, or goal orientation, dimensions; and system maintenance and change dimensions. (18) The relationship dimensions (ie, involvement, peer cohesion, supervisor support) assess the extent to which

* workers are concerned about and committed to their jobs,

* workers are friendly to and supportive of one another, and

* those in management positions are supportive of workers and encourage workers to be supportive of one another.

The personal growth, or goal orientation, dimensions (ie, autonomy, task orientation, work pressure) measure the

* extent to which workers are encouraged to be self-sufficient and to make their own decisions;

* degree of emphasis on good planning, efficiency, and getting the job done; and

* degree to which the pressure of work and time urgency dominate the work milieu. The system maintenance and change dimensions (ie, clarity, control, innovation, physical comfort) evaluate the

* extent to which workers know what to expect in their daily routines and how explicitly rules and policies are communicated;

* extent to which those in management positions use rules and pressures to keep workers under control;

* degree of emphasis on variety, change, and new approaches; and

* extent to which the physical surroundings contribute to a pleasant work environment. (18)

The WES has three forms that can be used to evaluate the work environment. The Real Form (ie, Form R) measures respondents' perceptions of their current work environment and was the form used in this study. The other two forms are the Ideal Form (ie, Form I), which measures respondents' conceptions of an ideal work environment, and the Expectations Form (ie, Form E), which measures respondents' expectations about work settings. (18)

The survey uses a two-point answer format (ie, true-false, yes-no). The WES Form R items are available in reusable booklets, and a separate one-page answer sheet is used to record the answers. Surveys usually require about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. (26)

The WES is scored using a template provided by Moos. (26) The raw score in each subscale is calculated with the number of marked items that the template indicates. Individual raw scores or grouped average scores in subscales can be converted to standard scores using a conversion table; standard scores are helpful in making comparisons among subscales. The raw scores from participants' surveys were transformed to t scores using the conversion table.