Validation of the professional practice environment scale in nurse educators in hospitals.

Aim: To report an assessment of the psychometric properties of the Professional Practice Environment (PPE) scale in a sample of Australian nurse educators in acute care hospitals.

Background: Although nurse educators are important in an enabling work environment, there has been no reported exploration of their satisfaction with work in acute care hospitals.

Discussion: The factor structure and internal consistency of the PPE scale were consistent with Erickson's eight-factor model of the items, indicating the appropriateness of the scale as an assessment tool to measure the PPE of nurse educators.

Conclusion: The PPE scale is useful for monitoring the work environment of nurse educators in clinical practice and the environmental effects influencing their recruitment, retention and job satisfaction.

Implications For Practice: This work may inform the development of integrated professional practice environments where the professional practice and workplace satisfaction of nurse educators are optimised, influencing safe, quality patient care.