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Join us for a presentation on From Nursing to Case Management: Adapting a Proven Scale to Understand and Improve the Case Manager Experience.
1 hr RN and CCM

The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) has been widely used for more than two decades to study the nursing work environment. Professional case managers specialize in care coordination to meet the clinical and financial goals of medically and socially complex patient populations across the continuum of care. Despite its importance, there is limited research on the case management practice environment, underscoring the need for a valid and reliable instrument to assess this concept. This study aims to adapt the PES-NWI to the context of hospital case management. Following expert panel feedback, the instrument was adapted for use in hospital case management (Practice Environment Scale for Hospital Case Management). A convenience sample was recruited via social media and professional networks, yielding 160 hospital case managers working across the United States. Psychometric evaluation of the adapted instrument included assessments of validity (content validity via expert panel review, known-groups validity, and factor analysis) and reliability (Cronbach’s alpha and item-total correlations). Hospital case management participants worked across 34 states and were mostly female (92%) from the disciplines of nursing (79%) and social work (21%). Nearly 60% of respondents held a national case management certification, and 40% had worked in case management for over 10 years. Factor analysis yielded a four-factor solution with clean item loadings: Supportive and Participatory Leadership, Staffing and Resource Adequacy, Opportunities for Professional Development, and Fostering Teamwork and Collaboration. The factor structure differs from the original instrument; however, psychometric testing demonstrates strong reliability (overall Cronbach’s alpha of 0.93; item-to-total correlations from 0.37 to 0.80) and validity. The Practice Environment Scale for Hospital Case Management is the first instrument to assess case managers’ practice environments in the hospital setting, which provides a foundation for future research. Understanding the practice environment is important for workforce development, enhancing professional satisfaction, and maximizing the impact of case management across acute care settings.

Objectives:

1. Explain the importance of the practice environment for workforce and professional development of case managers.
2. Describe the validity and reliability of the adapted instrument to measure practice environment for case managers.
3. Summarize how the adapted instrument can be used in future research related to the workforce and professional development of case managers.

Presenters:

• Kristen Berryman, MSN, RN, CCM