Evaluating nursing administration instruments

OBJECTIVE: To identify and evaluate available measures that can be used to examine the effects of management innovations in five important areas: autonomy, conflict, job satisfaction, leadership, and organizational climate. BACKGROUND: Management interventions target the context in which care is delivered and through which evidence for practice diffuses. These innovations need to be evaluated for their effects on desired outcomes. However, busy nurses may not have the time to locate, evaluate, and select instruments to measure expected nursing administration outcomes without research-based guidance. Multiple and complex important contextual variables need psychometrically sound and easy-to-use measurement instruments identified for use in both practice and research. METHOD: An expert focus group consensus methodology was used in this evaluation research to review available instruments in the five areas and evaluate which of these instruments are psychometrically sound and easy to use in the practice setting. RESULTS: The result is a portfolio of measures, clustered by concept and displayed on a spreadsheet. Retrieval information is provided. The portfolio includes the expert consensus judgment as well as useful descriptive information. CONCLUSIONS: The research reported here identifies psychometrically sound and easy-to-use instruments for measuring five key variables to be included in a portfolio. The results of this study can be used as a beginning for saving time in instrument selection and as an aid for determining the best instrument for measuring outcomes from a clinical or management intervention.