Reliable and valid instruments are needed for evaluating complex inpatient psychiatric environments where psychiatric nurses work and patients get better. The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Workforce Index (PES-NWI) is an instrument commonly used in outcomes research to measure constructs of the practice environment. However, psychometric properties of the PES-NWI have not been tested in a psychiatric nurse population. This paper examines the psychometric properties of the PES-NWI using a sample of hospital based psychiatric registered nurses.
